St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Who they were

Aloysius was the heir of the Gonzaga, one of the great houses of Renaissance Italy, raised in courts and camps and intended for power. At seventeen, over his father's furious opposition, he signed his inheritance over to his brother and entered the Jesuits as a novice with nothing. When plague struck Rome in 1591 the Jesuits opened a hospital, and Aloysius, the former prince, begged for the work no one wanted: carrying the dying in off the streets, washing them, and staying. He caught the fever from a man he carried, and died at twenty-three, reportedly holding the name of Jesus on his lips. His director, Robert Bellarmine, who knew every great man in Rome, said he had never met his equal.

Why people turn to St. Aloysius Gonzaga

The Church's standing patron of youth, of young people trying to be serious in environments that punish it. Caregivers during epidemics claimed him again, hard, in 2020.

How to ask their intercession

Parents ask him to pray for their teenagers by name. Young people can ask him directly for the courage to be out of step. Caregivers: for stamina, and for not becoming numb. ---