St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Q: Who was St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–91) was an Italian Jesuit who is venerated as a patron saint of Roman Catholic youth, students, and people with AIDS and their caregivers. He was originally destined for a military career as a nobleman, but he resigned his inheritance and social status to enter the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit order) in Rome . He became known for his asceticism and for caring for the sick during a plague . Eventually, he contracted the disease and died at age 23.

Q: What is St. Aloysius Gonzaga the patron saint of?

St. Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of Roman Catholic youth, students, plague victims, and people with AIDS and their caregivers.

Q: What was the miracle of St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–91) is known for two miracles that secured his canonization (official declaration as a saint ) in 1726. The first was the healing of Nicholas Celestini, a Jesuit novice who was dying but was restored to full health after an image of Aloysius was placed near his bedside. Allegdely, the saint appeared to Celestini and promised him that his life would be spared so that he could spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus . The second miracle involved the cure of a 12-year-old boy in Rome with severe epilepsy . Similar to the first miracle, Aloysius is said to have appeared to the boy during a seizure and told him that he would be cured if he spread devotion to the Scared Heart of Jesus and Mary .

Roman Catholic saint

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History

Who was St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

What is St. Aloysius Gonzaga the patron saint of?

What was the miracle of St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

St. Aloysius Gonzaga (born March 9, 1568, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Republic of Venice [Italy]—died June 21, 1591, Rome; canonized 1726; feast day June 21) was an Italian Jesuit who is venerated as a patron saint of Roman Catholic youth. He is also a patron of students and people with AIDS and their caregivers.

Aloysius was the eldest of seven children born to Ferrante Gonzaga, the marchese di Castiglione, and Marta Tana de Santena, a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth of Valois, the third wife of King Philip II of Spain. Destined for a military career as a nobleman, he was educated at the ducal courts of Florence and Mantua and at the royal court of Madrid, where he was page to Philip’s son Diego. However, in 1585 he resigned his inheritance and social status and entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit order) at Rome, where one of his spiritual directors was the renowned theologian St. Robert Bellarmine. Aloysius was noted for his asceticism and quickly volunteered to care for the sick and dying at a Jesuit hospital when plague broke out in Rome. Shortly before his ordination, he contracted the disease himself and died at age 23.

He was named patron of youth by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729, an action confirmed by Pope Pius XI in 1926. In 1991, amid the AIDS epidemic, the Society of Jesus proposed Aloysius as a patron of AIDS patients and their caregivers; he was declared such that year by Pope John Paul II in honor of the 400th anniversary of Aloysius’s death.