Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) June 21

This young man was a saint among saints. He received his first Holy Communion from St. Charles Borromeo and during his novitiate; his spiritual director was St. Robert Bellarmine. Born into nobility, his father wanted him to become a soldier and enlisted the support of eminent Church people to persuade his son to embrace this more “normal” vocation. But, Aloysius was determined to enter religious life. Hr transferred his inheritance to his brother and became a Jesuit. During the plague of 1591, the Jesuits opened a hospital. St. Aloysius contracted the disease while helping to nurse the poor there and died several months later. In a letter to his mother shortly before his death, he reveals a steward’s understanding that everything-even death-is God’s gift: “When God takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasures elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most chose to have.” Because of his ability to make good decisions at a young age, St. Aloysius is the patron of youth and young students.

John Fisher (1469-1535) and Thomas More (1478-1535) June 22

These English martyrs were beheaded during the reign of King Henry VIII for refusing to recognize the validity of the king’s divorce and re-marriage and for refusing to acknowledge the king as supreme head of the Church. St. John Fischer was a bishop and a gifted preacher and writer. St. Thomas More was a Chancellor of the realm and a respected scholar and confidant tit he king. In a time of turbulent conflict, between the papal authority and the divine right of kings, these men refused to swear allegiance to King Henry as the head of the Church, even knowing it meant their certain death. These men are stewards in that they had what we desperately need in dealing with the encroachment of civil powers upon the affairs of the faith. They possessed a conscience that could not be confused, a conviction that could not be compromised, a courage that could not be conquered, all even in the face of death.

-taken from Steward Saints for Every Day by Sharon Hueckel