The feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga will be celebrated with a commemorated Mass at St James church, Victoria, on Monday. The Mass, at 10am, will be celebrated by rector Fr George Borg who will also deliver a sermon on the saint.
St Aloysius Gonzaga was a young Italian aristocrat who joined the society of Jesus and dedicated himself to the care of victims of a plaque epidemic.
He died on June 21, 1591, at a young age of 23. St Aloysius was buried in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation, which later became the church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in Rome.
When the Jesuits took over the running of the Gozo Seminary, back in 1866, they started to celebrate St Aloysius Gonzaga’s feast day with great pomp. Eventually, to enhance the devotion, a statue of the saint was placed in the church of St James.