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Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568- 1591) was a prince of the Holy Roman Empire who renounced his titles and wealth to serve God and the Church as a member of the Society of Jesus. While he lived a short life and is honored as the patron saint of youth, Saint Aloysius invites all Christians to reflect on how they are living their unique vocations to be witnesses to Christ. Using the saint's own letters and spiritual reflections, and other historical documents, this book offers unparalleled insights into his life and personality. Woven together with his biography are also portraits of other Jesuits and Reformation saints. The author explains the history of the Society of Jesus and shows how Aloysius Gonzaga played an important part in developing the Jesuit's educational apostolate. For those interested in Jesuit history, the Reformation, or simply this appealing saint, this book offers a unique perspective on an important period of Church history and what it means to pursue God's will without counting the cost.
This work begins: "THE life of St. Aloysius is not an eventful one, if the outward vicissitudes of our earthly pilgrimage are to be taken as the measure of eventfulness. It was, moreover, a short life, and what men might call an incomplete life, even as respected the vocation to follow which he had made the sacrifice of all his worldly prospects. For he saw but the opening of his twenty-third summer, and died before attaining to the priesthood. But if we look to the interior life, the true life of all Christians-if we turn our eyes to that stage upon which the great drama of our existence is enacted-then the life of this youth becomes one of surpassing interest; and such is the light in which every devout Catholic has always regarded it. When acts of perfection, acts done for God, and not mere days and years, are considered as the measure of extension, then also does it expand into a long life; and if the entire fulfilment of the Divine purpose of grace towards the soul be taken into account, then, too, does it come before us as a complete life." Of his death we read: "He had always desired to die within the octave of Corpus Christi, or on a Friday, the day of his Saviour's Passion, and he obtained both boons; for he passed from this life just as the octave was closing and Friday beginning, in the' night between the 20th and 21st of June. He had completed twenty-three years, three months, and eleven days. No little grace did these two fathers deem it to have been permitted to assist at this blessed death; so many had desired this privilege, and they were the elected two; moreover, they had received from the lips of the saint a precious promise, that so long as they lived he would continually remember them before God. They seemed on the instant to experience the happy fruits of his intercession; for the Father Minister was filled with indescribable peace and consolation, and Father Guelfucci was penetrated with extraordinary sentiments of contrition and devotion, and an ardent zeal for the service of God. Nor with the latter were these impressions of a merely temporary character; they lasted for several months, and were renewed at times even when their first freshness was gone. Not daring to take anything from the venerated body, he secured for himself the shoe-strings and the pens of his departed brother: these were the first relics of the saint, and as such they were piously preserved." Then follows the details of his canonization and the miracles attributed to his intercession. Any life, short of long can be one of great virtue, and indeed should be. Let us learn from Saint Aloysius' life to live a life of virtue.