The first time I heard the name St. Aloysius, we were driving down Austin Avenue in Greenville, Rhode Island.
"If you kids don't behave, I'm going to leave you at St. Aloysius School," my mother said on more than one occasion.
I knew I was safe because it was a home for unwanted boys but still it made me wonder who St. Aloysius was and wish that the children left there would have happy lives.
The saint was on Earth an unbelievably short amount of time, dying at age 23. But, he made his mark and is still thought of centuries later.
He was born on March 9, 1568 at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, northern Italy. At age 10, he took a vow of chastity.
St. Aloysius helped the sick and the poor, and contracted the plague which eventually took his life on June 21, 1591. He was given his last sacraments by St. Robert Bellarmine. He was buried in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation in Rome. It is now called the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola.
St. Aloysius is the patron saint of children and youth. Canonized: Dec. 31, 1726
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