Book Review: St. Aloysius Gonzaga: an Italian nobleman

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) was an Italian nobleman who lived during the Catholic Counter Reformation. His parents Ferrante Gonzaga, the Marquis of Castiglione, Italy, and Marta, the Countess of Jana di Santena, Italy, were connected to very important noble families of the Holy Roman Empire and several high-ranking churchmen.
 
A new book by Br. Silas Henderson, S.D.S., titled “Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J.” has been released for Saint Gonzaga’s feast day – June 21.
 
This book by Henderson has no illustrations. It does have an index and many footnotes. There also are three appendices. This book is an academic presentation of the life of Saint Aloysius, but the reader would notice how it flows and catches one’s interest in the saint’s life story and of what was going on during his lifetime.
 
Saint Aloysius was the first-born son and heir to the marquisate. At an early age, he discerned that God was calling him to a religious vocation. He had experienced the life of a nobleman at various courts of his day, but realized he wanted the simple life of a religious, which meant giving up his inheritance. He started reading spiritual works and practicing various penances and other ascetical works and devotions.
 
Saint Aloysius could not on his own give up his title and inheritance and enter religious life without the permission of his father and the Holy Roman Emperor. It turned out he had an easier time convincing the emperor to let him do that than it was for him to convince his own father.
 
Ferrante Gonzaga was strongly opposed to his eldest son becoming a religious. He asked lay and Church leaders to get his son to reconsider. This did not work. More often those leaders ended up supporting Saint Aloysius. In 1585, Ferrante Gonzaga finally agreed to give his permission to renounce his inheritance and to enter the Jesuits.
 
Saint Aloysius went to Rome to enter the postulancy and novitiate of the Jesuits. He did studies in Rome, Naples, and in Milan. His health was not good and he and the Jesuits had to make sure he took care of himself and not over do his ascetical devotions. He was found to be very intelligent and made progress in his studies.
 
He worked in the various ministries of the Jesuits in Rome which included begging or at times working in the hospitals. He helped one beggar who was ill and caught what he had which killed him on June 21, 1591, at age 23. Many Jesuits and others considered him a saint. One of those was Saint Robert Bellarmine one of his spiritual directors. He was beatified on Oct. 19, 1605, and canonized on Dec. 31, 1726.
 
Br. Silas Henderson, S.D.S., is the author of four other books and several articles. In this book he includes quotes from letters of Saint Aloysius to his family members and others. He quotes some of the early biographies of Saint Aloysius like the 1606 biography by Virgil Cepari, S.J., who knew Saint Aloysius and another biography by a another Jesuit who knew the saint too, Jerome Piatti, S.J.
 
The book is highly recommended to those interested in biographies of saints and of a young adult who gave up his inheritance for the love of God.
 
Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., Saint Gregory’s Abbey, Shawnee, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.