Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Today, the Society of Jesus (otherwise known as the Jesuits) are in the spotlight as the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.

Saint Aloysius was born of the princely family of Castiglione (northern Italy) in 1568 near Mantua in Lombardy.  Instructed in piety by his mother, he manifested an inclination to religious life.  He legally delivered his share of the ancestral dominion to his brother and entered the Society of Jesus.  While serving the sick during a plague, he himself contracted the disease and died in 1591.