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.
A precocious child, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga had a spiritual awakening at the age of 7. As a young adult, and after a prolonged battle with his father, he entered the Jesuits where he had to learn to live and maneuver within community, and give up some of his independent ways of doing things. Aloysius helped nurse patients of the plague which he caught and from which he died.
Bishop Robert Barron includes Saint Aloysius Gonzaga as one of 12 Pivotal Players in his book The Pivotal Players, "because at a crucial time in the history of the Church, when Western Christianity was coming apart, Ignatius established a religious order with the organization, zeal and military discipline required to meet the challenge. The little band of brothers that he formed in the student dormitories of the University of Paris grew eventually into a religious family that has served the mission of the Church across the world foe the past five centuries."
Bishop Barron compares the impact of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga to his contemporaries writing "Though superficially his life seemed comparatively little moments, he has had an impact greater and more lasting than some of the best-known of his contemporaries: Charles V of Spain, Henry VIII of England, even Martin Luther and John Calvin. He effected this influence first through the establishment of the Jesuit order, which even in Ignatius' lifetime had become a powerful force in Europe and beyond and which today spans the globe, and second, through his masterpiece The Spiritual Exercise, which for the past five centuries has taught people how to commune with God and to find true freedom."
A precocious child, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga had a spiritual awakening at the age of 7. As a young adult, and after a prolonged battle with his father, he entered the Jesuits where he had to learn to live and maneuver within community, and give up some of his independent ways of doing things. Aloysius helped nurse patients of the plague which he caught and from which he died.
Bishop Robert Barron includes Saint Aloysius Gonzaga as one of 12 Pivotal Players in his book The Pivotal Players, "because at a crucial time in the history of the Church, when Western Christianity was coming apart, Ignatius established a religious order with the organization, zeal and military discipline required to meet the challenge. The little band of brothers that he formed in the student dormitories of the University of Paris grew eventually into a religious family that has served the mission of the Church across the world foe the past five centuries."
O God, giver of heavenly gifts, who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life, grant through his merits and intercession, that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence, we may imitate him in penitence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment