Many saints were raised by pious parents who did all that they could to cultivate the faith from an early age.
Such was the case of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who received the faith from his mother starting at birth.
Immediately baptized
According to the Life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, the beginning of his life was precarious and his mother wished for him to be baptized immediately upon birth. She also gave him her own blessing as well:
It was on the 9th of March 1568 that our saint was born. The first thing he received after his baptism was his mother’s blessing, who made the sign of the cross over him.
His mother didn’t waste any time trying to foster the faith in the heart of her child, doing what she could to teach the young baby to pray and make the sign of the cross:
His mother let not a day pass without forming the sign of the cross with the babe’s own hand and was forever repeating to him in accents of reverence and tenderness the names of Jesus and Mary. She was abundantly repaid when she heard them lisped as the first utterances of his infant tongue.
Praying as a toddler
As St. Aloysius grew, he wound be found trying to recite the words that his mother taught him, praying in his own toddler way:
Often he might be heard stammering [prayers] to himself and by and by, when able to walk and run about, he would be missed, and after diligent search found behind some piece of furniture or the tapestry of the apartment, on his knees with hands joined in prayer and eyes cast down to earth praying like a little seraph.
It should be noted that as with many hagiographies, these and other stories highlight his extraordinary childhood, while leaving out all the normal activities of a child of his age.
St. Aloysius may have had a unique early childhood, but he surely was like any other child who cried at times and wasn’t always obedient to his parents.
The main point is that St. Aloysius was attracted to the faith at an early age, which was fortunate, as he would die early at the age of 23.
And today we celebrate...