Aloysius was born in Renaissance Italy to a noble family. His father (who was in service to Philip II) wanted his son to become a famous soldier as well, and consquently sent him off to a military school when he was 5. The men at the camp, however, were lax, morally depraved, and coarse, something that Aloysius saw and vowed not to be become. Like any teenage boy though, he loved to have a good time and would look forward eagerly to the horse races, banquets and elaborate parties. However, anytime Aloysius found himself at a party that was immoral, he promptly left.
 
At the age of 7, Aloysius decided he wanted to become a Saint. To this end, he began an austre life of fasting and intense prayer. When on a trip to Spain, 13 year old Aloysius read a book on the lives of saintly Jesuit missionaries, and decided to become a Jesuit. His father and other relatives tried to change his mind, but he was stubborn and began a program he thought would prepare him for the religious life. He would kneel for hours on the cold stone floor of his room middle of the night and occasionally beat himself with a leather whip.
 
When he was 17, his father finally allowed him to renounce his inhertiance and enter the Jesuit novitiate in Rome. Once there, his spiritual director — Saint Robert Bellarmine — told Aloysius that his approach to sanctity was too severe and commanded him to follow the Jesuit rule of regular hours of prayer and simple acts of self-control and self-denial. Although Aloysius thought the rules were too easy, he obeyed. From the midst of this new kind of penace he wrote to his brother, "I am a piece of twisted iron. I entered the religious life to get twisted straight."
 
Then when Aloysius was 23, a serious plague struck in Rome. Aloysius and every other priest and novice immediately went to work in the wards. At first Alyosius was replused by the diseased, but soon his compassion won out. He would go into the streets and carry the ill and the dying to the hospital on his back. Once there, he would wash them, find them a place to rest, and feed them. Within a few weeks of such close contact, Aloysius contracted the plague himself and died.
 
This print is part of the "Happy Saint" collection by Anna Morelli.
 
The image is professionally printed, hand-signed by the artist, and comes enclosed in a plastic sleeve to ensure protection.