**LUIGI GONZAGA, Saint.** — Born on 9 March 1568 in the Castle of Castiglione delle Stiviere near Mantua, eldest son of Ferrante G., Imperial Prince and Marquis of Castiglione, and Marta Tana Santena of Chieri; died on 21 June 1591 in Rome. At the age of five, he followed his father to the military camps at Cremona, learning the life of a soldier. In 1577, he went with his brother Rodolfo to Florence as a page at the court of Francesco de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. There, in the church of the Santissima Annunziata, before the famous image of the Virgin, he made a vow of perpetual virginity to God.
Taking advantage of an illness, L. devoted himself to austerity through fasting and penance, which he combined with long hours of prayer. In 1580, he received his first Communion from the hands of St. Charles Borromeo, who had passed through Castiglione on a pastoral visit; from then on, he felt a great love for the sacrament of the Eucharist, attending Mass daily and receiving Communion on every feast day. In 1580–81, at Casale Monferrato and at the sanctuary of Crea, built through the efforts of the Barnabites and Capuchins, he resolved to embrace the state of perfection, already beginning to lead a religious life at court. In the autumn of 1581, he accompanied relatives to escort the Empress Maria of Austria to the court of Philip II in Spain, where he remained for two years as a page to Don Diego, pursuing studies in philosophy, which he publicly demonstrated at the University of Alcalá. Reading the *Compendio de la doctrina espiritual* by Friar Luigi of Granada, he devoted himself more intensely to mental prayer, sometimes extending it to five or more hours a day. In 1583, he decided to enter the Society of Jesus. After a long and tormented struggle with his father, who left no stone unturned to dissuade him—sending him to various courts—L., having resolved difficult matters wisely and skillfully in Milan, finally succeeded in obtaining his consent. Renouncing his principality in favor of his brother Rodolfo, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Rome on 25 November 1585. With ardor, he set about acquiring perfection through lofty prayer and the stages of a general mortification, both interior and exterior, united with profound humility and perfect obedience, reaching a habitual state of intimate union with God, with all the effects of divine charity. Full of kindness toward his neighbor, he often visited hospitals, serving the sick in the humblest offices, and on feast days zealously taught catechism.
**LUIGI GONZAGA, Saint.** — During his last stay in Spain, he delivered in Madrid on 29 March 1583 the *Meditazione degli angeli santi*; the *Esercitazione agli studenti del collegio di Siena*; and some ascetical notes on the acquisition of humility. Cf. Sommervogel, III, cols. 1575–81; G. Boero, *Gli scritti editi e inediti dell’angelico giovane s. L. G.* — First published together, Rome 1862; L. Molza, *Lettere di s. L. G.*, Modena 1867; a more accurate edition, verified against autographs and other sources, was published by Fr. E. Rosa, *Lettere e scritti spirituali di s. L. G.*, collected and annotated, Florence 1926 (German trans., expanded and updated by J. Leufkens, *Briefe u. Schriften des hl. Aloysius G.*, Munich 1928), and by Fr. P. Bosio Boz, *Lettere di s. L. G.*, Rome 1949. Among the lives of St. L. G., the celebrated one by Fr. L. Cepari, Rome 1606 (numerous editions, reprints, and translations into almost all languages; ed. by F. Schröder, copiously annotated, Einsiedeln 1891; new German ed. updated by E. Reitz V. Frentz, ibid. 1928) stands out; also M. Meschler, *Leben des H. Aloysius*, Freiburg im Br. 1891 (similarly successful; Italian trans., T. G. rino 1923 and 1926); F. Goldie, *St. Aloysius*, London 1891; J. Croiset, *St. Louis de G., parfait modèle de la jeunesse chrétienne*, Lille 1921; A. Lambrette, *St. Louis de G., sa mission, son âme*, Louvain 1926; C. Martindale, *The vocation of Aloysius G.*, London 1927, French trans. by E. Delpierre-A. Noché, *St. Louis de G. et la Renaissance italienne (1568–1591)*, Le Puy 1946. Cf. E. Rivière, *Bibliogr. du 3e centenaire de St. Louis de G.*, Paris 1891.
**LUIGI MARIA GRIGNION, Saint** — Portrait. Painted in 1716.
(courtesy of Fr. Le Baili)
and took the name of Montfort), died at St-Laurent-sur-Sèvre on 28 April 1716. Ordained priest in 1700, and not being permitted to go to the missions in Canada, he joined a group of priests in Nantes with the aim of teaching catechism to the poor of the countryside and awakening sinners’ devotion to the Virgin (letter of 6 November 1700). Disappointed in his hopes, he accepted the position of almoner for the poor at the Hospital of Poitiers; there he carried out reforms and in 1703, with the cooperation of Marie Louise Trichet (Marie Louise of Jesus), founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom for the care of the poor and the sick and the instruction of children.
After achieving immense success in his missions, he was driven away from the hospital and the diocese by the intrigues of libertines and Jansenists. He then made a pilgrimage on foot to Rome to seek light and counsel from the Vicar of Christ. Clement XI dissuaded him from going to foreign missions, appointed him apostolic missionary, and assigned France as his field of apostolate. From then on, he devoted himself tirelessly until the end of his life to missionary work (1706–16), especially in Brittany, Poitou, and Aunis. Wherever he preached, he promoted the Cross and the Rosary, the total consecration of oneself to Jesus through the hands of Mary, erected Calvaries, restored churches, and established confraternities, with the result that faith has remained remarkably alive in the regions he evangelized to this day. Heroic in poverty, mortification, obedience, and love of the poor, he was relentlessly persecuted, the victim of several assassination attempts, and rejected by many dioceses, yet always protected by the two great anti-Jansenist bishops of Luçon and La Rochelle (Jean-François-Valérie de l'Escure and Étienne de Champflour).
L. M. wrote: *Traité de la vraie dévotion à la Ste Vierge* (ms. discovered in 1842, 1st ed. Luçon 1843); *Le secret de la Sagesse éternelle* (Paris 1856); *Le secret admirable du Très Saint Rosaire* (ibid. 1912); *Lettre aux amis de la Croix* (Nantes 1875); *Secret de Marie* (Montreal 1899); and various canticles (cf. critical ed. by F. Fradet, Paris 1929).
He viewed the spiritual life as the total consecration to Jesus, the Incarnate Wisdom, through the hands of Mary and complete dependence on this Divine Mother, so that man, moved by Mary and living in her, with her, and for her, might live more perfectly with Jesus, in him, and for him. To perpetuate the work of the missions, he founded the Missionaries of the Company of Mary, for which he also wrote the Rule, as he had already done for the Daughters of Wisdom.
Beatified by Leo XIII in 1888, he was canonized by Pius XII on 20 July 1947. Feast day: 28 April.
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