Veneration
Aloysius was buried in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation, which later became the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola 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 mortal remains were moved to the Sant'Ignazio church in Rome, where they now rest in an urn of lapis lazuli in the Lancelotti Chapel. His head was later translated to the basilica bearing his name in Castiglione delle Stiviere. He was beatified only fourteen years after his death by Pope Paul V, on October 19, 1605. On December 31, 1726, he was canonized together with another Jesuit novice, Stanislaus Kostka, by Pope Benedict XIII.
In 1729 Pope Benedict declared Aloysius to be the patron saint of young students. In 1926 he was named patron of all Christian youth by Pope Pius XI. Owing to the manner of his death, he has always been considered a patron saint of plague victims. St. Aloysius is also the patron of Valmontone, a town not far from Rome.
In art, St Aloysius is shown as a young man wearing a black cassock and white rochet, 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 Virgin Mary.
Saint Aloysius' feast day is celebrated on June 21, the date of his death. He is the patron saint of the family Rosselli Del Turco/Lais.
Read more about this topic: Aloysius Gonzaga
Famous quotes containing the word veneration:
“It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
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