By T.K. Wilson (Rated G)
Aloysius Gonzalga was born in the midst of the decadent Renaissance, in the most decadent of countries at that time, Italy. He was the firstborn son of the prestigious Gonzalga family, and his father wanted him to become a great soldier, but Aloysius wanted a different life. When he was a young boy, he wanted to know and serve God, and as he entered his preteens, he was practicing great austerities and teaching catechism to poor boys. When he was thirteen, he traveled to Spain and served as a pageboy in the court of Philip the Second. The behavior of the courtiers disgusted him and made his vocation clear: He would join the Jesuits.
His family opposed him and indeed, so did clerics of the church, as his father thought him too important to lose to the church, but eventually he prevailed and took his first vows at the age of eighteen. At the college, he had to learn to submit to different sorts of penances, not so severe as the ones he’d imposed on himself. At twenty-one he was called on to settle a dispute between his family and the Duke of Mantua and did it with such calm and dignity that everyone was amazed.
In the year 1591, an outbreak of the plague struck Rome. At the new Jesuit hospital, it was all hands on deck. Aloysius, who had suffered from a weak constitution and migraines, had been forbidden to work with plague victims. He was obedient, but when he saw a man struggling with some illness on the street, he jumped in with both hands, literally- he carried the man all the way to the hospital, thinking that he had some illness other than the plague. Sadly, Aloysius did contract the plague due to his contact with this man, and he died at the age of 23.
May we press on despite our weakness as Aloysius did.
Sources:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-aloysius-gonzaga-512
http://www.cin.org/saints/aloysius.html
LogoSophia Magazine 