St. Aloysius Gonzaga
Feast 06-21 · Canonized 1726
Patron of
About
Aloysius Gonzaga was born in 1568 into the noble Gonzaga family of Castiglione, Italy. As a young page in the courts of Florence and Spain, he was exposed to courtly life but resolved early to dedicate himself to God.
He renounced his inheritance and entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1585. He was known for his intense prayer, penance, and devotion to the poor and the sick.
During a plague epidemic in Rome in 1591, he cared for the sick in the Jesuit hospital and contracted the disease himself. He died on June 21, 1591, at the age of twenty-three, and was canonized in 1726. He is the patron saint of students and young people.
Suggested prayer
O God, who gave Saint Aloysius the grace to renounce a princely inheritance and die at twenty-three serving plague victims, grant through his intercession that students may seek wisdom and holiness in all their studies. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.