Discover Saint Aloysius Gonzaga—warrior prince turned Jesuit novice, dedicated to purity and plague ministry. A vocation forged by grace and steadfast faith.
Newsroom, June 21, 2024, Gaudium Press – Aloysius (1568–1591) was the firstborn son of Fernando, Marquis of Castiglione, a sort of Italian sovereign prince. As a child, he was trained for war, and his father took him on military campaigns from a very young age. He especially enjoyed marching like the formidable Spanish tercios.
After one expedition—an attack on Tunis—he repeated some rude soldierly expressions he didn’t understand. His tutor, Don Francesco del Turco, admonished him kindly but firmly: “Your Highness, during our time in Casal you lived in the camp. But you brought home expressions unfit for a prince of your blood—words your mother would be deeply pained to hear from you.”
Aloysius was deeply remorseful, and from that moment his conversion began.
From his mother, Marta Tana, lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabel of Valois, he learned piety early on. The marquise loved to see her son embrace this spiritual life, though his father feared it would derail his military future.
At nine, Aloysius was sent to the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s court in Florence, where he developed a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary through books on the rosary and pilgrimages to the Madonna dell’Annunziata. There he offered his vow of virginity. God was building a cathedral in his young, innocent soul.
Later, at the court of Mantua, his virtues continued to grow until he returned home and began receiving mystical graces.
In 1580, when Saint Charles Borromeo visited Castiglione as Apostolic Visitor, he admired young Aloysius’s religious knowledge and administered the Eucharist to him for the first time.
At thirteen, he felt called to the religious life. He said nothing to his parents but intensified his piety, causing concern for his father, who moved the family to Madrid and made him a page to King Philip II. Yet Aloysius remained steadfast despite the court’s honours and pleasures.
Persecution by His Father
Inspired by grace, he resolved to enter the Society of Jesus. When his father learned of this, he raged with threats and arranged for Church authorities to dissuade his son from becoming a Jesuit—but to no avail. Aloysius endured two years of conflict until one day, seeing his son disciplining himself, the Marquis bowed before God’s will.
The Emperor had to confirm Aloysius’s public renunciation of his rights as firstborn. Only then did he enter the Jesuit novitiate.
He excelled in his studies and inspired fellow novices. However, his health was weak. In 1591 he cared for plague victims in Rome, then contracted it himself. After three months of high fever, God called him home at age 23.
Saint Robert Bellarmine, his confessor and cardinal, said Aloysius had been confirmed in grace—he had no mortal sin. Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi claimed to have seen “the immense glory in which this son of Saint Ignatius of Loyola now rejoices in Heaven.”
One of Aloysius’s own writings reflects his great charity: “The God who calls me is Love; how could I contain this love when for that purpose the whole world would be too small?”
In one recorded conversation with his Jesuit provincial:
– “We march, my Father, and we march with joy.”
– “Where to, Aloysius?”
– “To Heaven…! If my sins do not prevent it, I hope to go there by God’s mercy.”
With information from Arautos.org
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
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