The Life of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Audio CD

 Title: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
Authors: Bob and Penny Lord
Publisher: Journeys of Faith
Format: Audio CD Disc

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
Patron saint of Catholic Youth

Saint Aloysius or Luigi Gonzaga, as he was baptized, was born on March 9, 1568, in the castle of Castiglione della Stivieri in Lombardy, Italy. Saint Dominic Savio, another Saint of the young, whom we have also written about in this book, and who was called another Aloysius, died on March 9th, only in 1857, almost three hundred years after the birth of Saint Aloysius. Coincidence or God’s way of telling us something, putting the pieces of the puzzle of life together. I believe we will discover, as his story unfurls, why Saint Dominic Savio was called another Aloysius.

Every time, we write a book, you ask us why this book now? As we are writing these chapters on these young Saints, God’s word keeps coming to us. It’s like the unreal changes of weather we have been having in this, the end of the last century of the Second Millennium. All I keep thinking, Is God talking to us, and is anyone listening? “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

Dominic was born into a life of poverty, of parents who were poor materially, but rich in faith. Aloysius, on the other hand, was born into a family of wealth and position. He was the oldest son of Don Ferrante, the Marquis of Castiglione and Marta Tana Santena, who as part of the royal court of Philip II of Spain, was lady of honor to the Queen. Not only did his mother have a highly esteemed honor, his father held a prestigious position in the court, as well. So, baby Luigi (Aloysius) was born into the velvets and purples of his century.

 From riches to rags, he answered the call to evangelize, going from Spain to Florence to Mantua where he served in the king's court to Casale Monferrato in northern Italy where he began to practice the ascetic life, to the Jesuit house of San Andrea to the Gesu, in Rome, where he is buried.