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Young Aloysius Gonzaga in a white surplice, called by an angel pointing upwards, painted by Guercino in 1650

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Gave up his inheritance to be a Jesuit and died at twenty-three after nursing the sick

Patron of
young people, boys
Western calendar
21 June
Orthodox calendar
Not kept

Aloysius was the heir of the castle of Castiglione and a page at the courts of Florence and of Spain, who received his First Communion from Charles Borromeo at twelve and resolved, while in Spain, to become a Jesuit. After much difficulty he won his father's consent, gave up his inheritance to his brother in 1585 and entered the Society of Jesus. When famine and pestilence struck Italy in 1591 he gave himself, frail as he was, to the care of the sick, fell ill himself, and died on 21 June at twenty-three, and the Church honours him as patron of the young.

Sources

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