Our saint of the week is Saint Aloysius Gonzaga — more than just a cool name for awesome Jesuit basketball teams!  Saint Aloysius (1568—1591) was born into a very wealthy, very powerful political family in the Spanish court.  But at age 16, he renounced his hereditary right to be prince of Mantua in Italy, having been drawn to the consecrated life, and he joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).  He perhaps may have gone on to become a Jesuit priest, but at the age of 23, he contracted the plague while tending to the sick, and he died.  (This remarkable act of charity and complete self-abandonment is captured in sculpture at Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Spokane.)  He was canonized in 1726 and was proclaimed “patron saint of youth” by Pope Benedict XIII.

Among the many notable moments in his short life were the first words he ever spoke as a toddler:  the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.  Later, at age nine, he made a vow of perpetual virginity, and by a special grace, he was exempted from sexual temptations all his life.  Also at this young age, he received First Communion from none other than Saint Charles Borromeo in Italy, where his father was stationed at that time.  And at the moment of his death, he died with the same words on his lips that were his first:  the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and he passed from this world just after midnight on June 21, 1591.

May Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth, pray for and protect our own parish youth and all young people, and may they strive to model their own lives after the pure and holy life of this great and glorious Saint.