Dusty Feasts

Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.

It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.

The Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

This is a Christian religious celebration of Aloysius de Gonzaga, a 16th century Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. He died at the age of twenty-three after caring for the victims of a local epidemic. He is a patron saint of young students, Christian youth, Jesuit scholastics, the blind, AIDS patients, and AIDS care-givers.

Because of his age when he died, and his patronage of students, many schools have been named in his honor, included among them Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington (the latter of whom has a very well known collegiate men’s basketball team.)

Biography and Tradition – Feast Day Recipe – Prayer – Celebration Date

Who is St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ (Italian: Luigi Gonzaga; 9 March 1568 – 21 June 1591) was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. 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.

Early life

Gonzaga was born the eldest of eight children, at his family’s castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, between Brescia and Mantua in northern Italy in what was then part of the Duchy of Mantua, into a cadet branch of the illustrious House of Gonzaga. “Aloysius” is the Latin form of his given name in Italian, “Luigi”. Gonzaga was the son of Ferrante Gonzaga, Marquess of Castiglione, and Dona Marta Tana di Santena, daughter of a baron of the Piedmontese Della Rovere family. His mother was a lady-in-waiting to Isabel, the wife of Philip II of Spain.

As the firstborn son, he was in line to inherit his father’s title and status of Marquis. His father assumed that Gonzaga would become a soldier, as that was the norm for sons of the aristocracy and the family was often involved in the minor wars of the period. As early as age four, Luigi was given a set of miniature guns and accompanied his father on training expeditions so that the boy might learn “the art of arms”. At age five, Gonzaga was sent to a military camp to get started on his training. His father was pleased to see his son marching around camp at the head of a platoon of soldiers. His mother and his tutor were less pleased with the vocabulary he picked up there.

He grew up amid the violence and intrigue of Renaissance Italy. In 1576, at age 8, he was sent to Florence along with his younger brother, Rodolfo, to serve at the court of the Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici and to receive further education. While there, he fell ill with a disease of the kidneys, which troubled him throughout his life. While he was ill, he took the opportunity to read about the saints and to spend much of his time in prayer. In November 1579, the brothers were sent to the Duke of Mantua. Gonzaga was shocked by the violent and frivolous lifestyle he encountered there.

He returned to Castiglione where he met Cardinal Charles Borromeo, and from him received First Communion on 22 July 1580. After reading a book about Jesuit missionaries in India, Gonzaga felt strongly that he wanted to become a missionary. He started practicing by teaching catechism classes to young boys in Castiglione in the summers. He also repeatedly visited the houses of the Capuchin friars and the Barnabites located in Casale Monferrato, the capital of the Gonzaga-ruled Duchy of Montferrat where the family spent the winter. He also adopted an ascetic lifestyle.

The family was called to Spain in 1581 to assist Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress. They arrived in Madrid in March 1582, where Gonzaga and Rodolfo became pages for the young Infante Diego. Gonzaga started thinking in earnest about joining a religious order. He had considered joining the Capuchins, but he had a Jesuit confessor in Madrid and decided instead to join that order. His mother agreed to his request, but his father was furious and prevented him from doing so.

In July 1584, a year and a half after the Infante’s death, the family returned to Italy. Gonzaga still wanted to become a priest, but several members of his family worked hard to persuade him to change his mind. When they realized there was no way to make him give up his plan, they tried to persuade him to become a secular priest and offered to arrange for a bishopric for him. If he were to become a Jesuit he would renounce any right to his inheritance or status in society. His family’s attempts to dissuade him failed; Gonzaga was not interested in higher office and still wanted to become a missionary.

Religious life

In November 1585, Gonzaga gave up all rights of inheritance, which was confirmed by the emperor. He went to Rome and, because of his noble birth, gained an audience with Pope Sixtus V. Following a brief stay at the Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga, the Roman home of his cousin, Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, on 25 November 1585 he was accepted into the Society of Jesus in Rome. During this period, he was asked to moderate his asceticism somewhat and to be more social with the other novices.

Gonzaga’s health continued to cause problems. He was sent to Milan for studies, but was sent back to Rome after some time because of his health. On 25 November 1587, he took the three religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. In February and March 1588, he received minor orders and started studying theology to prepare for ordination. In 1589, he was called to Mantua to mediate between his brother Rodolfo and the Duke of Mantua. He returned to Rome in May 1590. It is said that, later that year, he had a vision in which the Archangel Gabriel told him that he would die within a year.

In 1591, a plague broke out in Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital for the stricken, and Gonzaga volunteered to work there. After begging alms for the victims, Gonzaga began working with the sick, carrying the dying from the streets into a hospital founded by the Jesuits. There he washed and fed the plague victims, preparing them as best he could to receive the sacraments. But though he threw himself into his tasks, he privately confessed to his spiritual director, Robert Bellarmine, that his constitution was revolted by the sights and smells of the work; he had to work hard to overcome his physical repulsion.

At the time, many of the younger Jesuits had become infected with the disease, and so Gonzaga’s superiors forbade him from returning to the hospital. But Gonzaga—long accustomed to refusals from his father—persisted and requested permission to return, which was granted. Eventually he was allowed to care for the sick, but only at another hospital, called Our Lady of Consolation, where those with contagious diseases were not admitted. While there, Gonzaga was infected. He grew ill and was bedridden by 3 March 1591, a few days before his 23rd birthday.

Gonzaga declined for many weeks. It seemed certain that he would die in a short time, and he was given Extreme Unction. He spoke several times with his confessor, the cardinal and later saint, Robert Bellarmine. Gonzaga told several people that he would die on the Octave of the feast of Corpus Christi. On that day, 21 June 1591, as he began to grow weak, Bellarmine gave him the last rites. He died just before midnight.

Veneration

Gonzaga was buried in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation, which later became the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Sant’Ignazio) in Rome. His name was changed to “Robert” before his death, in honor of his confessor. Many people considered him to be a saint soon after his death, and his remains were moved into the Sant’Ignazio church, where they now rest in an urn of lapis lazuli in the Lancellotti Chapel. His head was later translated to the sanctuary-basilica bearing his name (elevated to Minor Basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1964) in Castiglione delle Stiviere. He was beatified by Pope Paul V on 19 October 1605—only fourteen years after the Saint’s death—and then canonized together with another Jesuit novice, Stanislaus Kostka, by Pope Benedict XIII on 31 December 1726. Purity was his notable virtue. The Carmelite mystic, Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, claimed to have had a vision of him on 4 April 1600. She described him as radiant in glory because of his “interior works,” a hidden martyr for his great love of God.

Saint Aloysius’ feast day is celebrated on 21 June, the date of his death.

Patronage

In 1729, Pope Benedict XIII declared Aloysius de Gonzaga to be the patron saint of youth and students, placing all schools under the patronage of the Saint. In 1926, he was named patron of all Christian youth by Pope Pius XI. Owing to the manner of his death, he has been considered a patron saint of plague victims. For his compassion and courage in the face of an incurable disease, St. Aloysius Gonzaga has become the patron both of AIDS patients and their caregivers. Gonzaga is also the patron of Valmontone, a town in Lazio.

Being the patron saint of youth and students and because of his service to others as a young adult, several schools and colleges are named after Aloysius Gonzaga. Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, are a few examples.

A controversy ensued in 1991, when the priest Giussepe Pittau, later rector of the Gregorian University in Rome, proposed that Aloysius should be made patron of people suffering from AIDS.

Iconography

In art, Gonzaga is shown as a young man wearing a black cassock and surplice, or as a page. His attributes are a lily, referring to innocence; a cross, referring to piety and sacrifice; a skull, referring to his early death; and a rosary, referring to his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Joseph’s Church in Gelsenkirchen, the location of German soccer club Schalke 04, has a glass window of the saint with a soccer ball. Gonzaga is represented on the ceiling of the Chapel of the Immaculate, at Collegio Rotondi, Italy, in the act of adoring Our Lady with her child Jesus. In the painting by Jacopo Zoboli in the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso in Rome, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga is depicted helping the sick during the plague epidemic.

In popular culture

Irish writer James Joyce, being educated at the Jesuit Clongowes Wood College, chose Aloysius Gonzaga as his confirmation saint. Aloysius was also recorded in multiple lesser-known non-musical writings of the famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

What is something you can eat to celebrate the Feast Day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

A popular dish to eat when celebrating this feast day – one that reflects both where this saint grew up and the poverty he chose for himself – is the following:

Minestrone Soup

A common feast day meal to celebrate this saint – one that reflects both the region where he lived and the life of povoerty he chose despite being born into wealth – is the following:

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients 

• 1 onion , roughly chopped
• 2 carrots , roughly chopped
• 2-3 ribs celery , roughly chopped
• ½ cup diced pancetta (optional)
• 1 ½ cup pumpkin or butternut squash , cut in cubes
• 1 large potato or 1 ½ cup potatoes , cut in cubes
• 1 large tomato chopped or 10 cherry tomatoes , cut in quarters
• 1 small savoy cabbage , roughly chopped
• 1 can (14 oz) borlotti beans
• ⅓ cup ditalini pasta or other small pasta shape
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 rosemary sprigs
• 1 garlic clove (optional)
• Salt to taste

Instructions 

• In a large pot add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, roughly chopped onion, carrots, celery, garlic clove, and pancetta cubes. Sautee on medium heat for a few minutes stirring a couple of times in the process.
• Add potatoes, butternut squash, tomatoes, bay leaf, rosemary sprigs and a couple of pinches of salt.
• Give a nice stir and add enough water to cover all the veggies.Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes. Add more liquid if needed.
• Past this time veggies will become super soft and will “melt” one into another creating delicious creamy texture.
• Once veggies are cooked add chopped savoy cabbage or other leafy greens and drained canned beans. Add more water if needed. Give a nice stir and cook for another 15 minutes.
• As a last step, add pasta or rice. Let cook for 5-15 more minutes depending on how long pasta or rice will take to cook.
• If you’re not planning to serve minestrone right away, don’t add pasta or rice immediately.Instead, bring the soup to a boil when you’re ready to serve it and then add pasta or rice.
• Minestrone is ready to serve when pasta (rice) is cooked. I takes about 5-6 minutes for ditalini pasta and about 15 minutes for rice.
• Serve hot or warm generously topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

What is a prayer to say on the Feast Day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga?

(via stmparish.org)

Prayer for the Intercession of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Lord Jesus, we humbly seek the intercession of St.
Aloysius Gonzaga, a beacon of purity and devotion.
May his example inspire us to live with unwavering faith and compassion.
Grant us the strength to overcome our struggles and the grace to serve others selflessly.
Through his prayers, may we draw closer to You and reflect Your love in our lives.
Amen.

When is the Feast Day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga celebrated?

This feast day is celebrated annually on 21 June.

I hope that everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day!