Feast Day: June 21
Patron Saint of students, Christian youth, Jesuit novice, AIDS patients and caregivers
Invoked against eye troubles and epidemics
Canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on December 31, 1726
Liturgical Color: White

The firstborn of eight children, Luigi Gonzaga's (Luigi being the Italian version of his name. Aloysius is the Latin version.) parents had very differnet ideas about the life each wanted for their son. Luigi's father, Ferrante Gonzaga, was Governor of Milan, Viceroy of Sicily, and a general in the army of two Holy Roman Emperors. Ferrante began training four-year-old Luigi for a military career. Luigi's devout Catholic mother had very different hopes for her son.

When Luigi  was seven, he experienced a profound spiritual quickening, praying daily on his knees, often on a cold, hard floor, his prayers included the Office of Our Lady, the Psalms, and other devotions. Around this time, Luigi was sticken by illness, which was marked by fever and required about eighteen months of be rest. Even during this, he never missed his daily prayers.

At age eight, Luigi and his younger brother were sent to Florence under the guardianship of a member of the influential Medici family. While in Florence, the boys serves as pages in their guardian's court. They also studied Latin, literature, philosophy, and history. However, by the time he was nine, Luigi, who now was using his Latin name, Aloysius, was much more interested in piety and the lives of the saints.

When Aloysius was eleven, Ferrante brought his sons back home. Aloysius was deeply moved by a book of letters from Jesuit missionaries, particularly a letter for a Jesuit missionary to the Indies. Privately, Aloysius made a vow to live a celibate life devoted to God. He also resoved to renounce his firstborn rights. He the began to embrace every virtue, especially purity, and was teaching catechism to other children.

As a thirteen-year-old, he traveled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seriously considering becoming a Jesuit. While his mother was thrilled with this, his father was not. After four year, through divine grace, his father's heart softened enough for him to give his reluctant consent to Aloysius. Once the emperor approved Aloysius' renouncement of his inheritance and position, Aloysius was able to join the Jesuit novitiate in Rome on November 25, 1585, at the age of eighteen.

Spending four years with future Saint Robert Bellarmine as his spiritual director and teacher, Aloysius grew in his devotion. In 1591, after a brief return home, Aloysius came back to a Rome that was being ravaged by the bubonic plague. There, Aloysius dedicated himself to caring for the sick, fulfilling these spiritual and physical duties with profound joy. Eventually, Aloysius himself became ill with the disease, suffering greatly. He embraced his suffering with rejoicing and maintained his discipline of prayer. He even prophesied the day of his death which happend on the Octave Day of the Solemnity of Corpus Christ. Aloysius was just twent-three years old.