Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ (Italian: Luigi Gonzaga; 9 March 1568 – 21 June 1591) was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726. Gonzaga was born the eldest of eight children, at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, between Brescia and Mantua in northern Italy in what was then part of the Duchy of Mantua, into a cadet branch of the illustrious House of Gonzaga. "Aloysius" is the Latin form of his given name in Italian, "Luigi". Gonzaga was the son of Ferrante Gonzaga, Marquess of Castiglione, and Dona Marta Tana di Santena, daughter of a baron of the Piedmontese Della Rovere family. His mother was a lady-in-waiting to Isabel, the wife of Philip II of Spain. As the firstborn son, he was in line to inherit his father's title and status of Marquis. His father assumed that Gonzaga would become a soldier, as that was the norm for sons of the aristocracy and the family was often involved in the minor wars of the period. As early as age four, Luigi was given a set of miniature guns and accompanied his father on training expeditions so that the boy might learn "the art of arms". At age five, Gonzaga was sent to a military camp to get started on his training. His father was pleased to see his son marching around camp at the head of a platoon of soldiers. His mother and his tutor were less pleased with the vocabulary he picked up there. He grew up amid the violence and intrigue of Renaissance Italy. In 1576, at age 8, he was sent to Florence along with his younger brother, Rodolfo, to serve at the court of the Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici and to receive further education. While there, he fell ill with a disease of the kidneys, which troubled him throughout his life. While he was ill, he took the opportunity to read about the saints and to spend much of his time in prayer.