Aloysius Gonzaga was born to a marquisate — heir to a fortune, a name, a place at court. He gave it all away. He signed the inheritance over to his brother, entered the Society of Jesus, and died at twenty-three, worn out from nursing the plague-stricken in the streets of Rome.
He is the patron of youth, and of holy purity, and there is a particular sharpness to his witness in any age that tells the young to grasp at everything. He grasped at one thing only.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam — for the greater glory of God. The Jesuit motto, and the whole of his short life.
A candle for the evening, and for the quiet resolve of a young soul who chose the better part.