Saint of the day June 21

 Saint of the day June 21

St. John Rigby, 1600 A.D. Martyr of England, a layman executed at Southwark. He was born near Wigan, England, and was reconciled to the Church. Admitting that he was a Catholic, he was arrested and placed in Newgate Prison. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Southwark on June 21. John is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales and was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.  

English martyr; b. about 1570 at Harrocks Hall, Eccleston, Lancashire; executed at St. Thomas Waterings, 21 June, 1600. He was the fifth or sixth son of Nicholas Rigby, by Mary, daughter of Oliver Breres of Preston. In the service of Sir Edmund Huddleston, at a time when his daughter, Mrs. Fortescue, being then ill, was cited to the Old Bailey for recusancy, Rigby appeared on her behalf; compelled to confess himself a Catholic, he was sent to Newgate. The next day, 14 February, 1599 or 1600, he signed a confession, that, since he had been reconciled by the martyr, John Jones the Franciscan, in the Clink some two or three years previously, he had declined to go to church. He was then chained and remitted to Newgate, till, on 19 February, he was transferred to the White Lion. On the first Wednesday in March (which was the 4th and not, as the martyr himself supposes, the 3rd) he was brought to the bar, and in the afternoon given a private opportunity to conform. The next day he was sentenced for having been reconciled; but was reprieved till the next sessions. On 19 June he was again brought to the bar, and as he again refused to conform, he was told that his sentence must be carried out. On his way to execution, the hurdle was stopped by a Captain Whitlock, who wished him to conform and asked him if he were married, to which the martyr replied, "I am a bachelor; and more than that I am a maid", and the captain thereupon desired his prayers. The priest, who reconciled him, had suffered on the same spot 12 July, 1598.

St. Corbmac, 6th century. An abbot and disciple of St. Columba, who made him the superior of Durrow Monastery. 

 

St. Maine. Founder of Saint-Meon in Brittany, France. He was a disciple of St. Samson. Maine, who also is listed as Meen, Mevenus, Mavenus, or Mewan, was either Welsh or Cornish.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Roman Catholic Jesuit Priest. He served in a hospital during the plague of 1587 in Milan, and died from it at the age of 23. Feastday: June 21

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/june-aloysius-gonzaga-sj/

June 21st: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, SJ

Born: Mar. 9, 1568

Died June 21, 1591

Canonized: Dec. 21, 1726

Feast Day June 21

Patron Saint of Youth

St. Aloysius of Gonzaga was born in Castiglione, Italy. As the eldest son of the Marquis of Castiglione, an Italian nobleman, his father had great hopes that he would embark on a military career. From the age of four, his father took him on military training expeditions. But Aloysius was also deeply faithful, pious and given to prayers.

He contracted malaria at the age of seven and it was during this time that he was converted from the worldly and courtly way of life to the interior life. By the age of ten, he had privately decided on a religious life and made a firm determination never to offend God by sin. He developed an affinity for study of the saints, and recited the psalms daily. He received his First Communion from Cardinal Charles Borromeo of Milan at the age of twelve. After that he looked forward to weekly Communion (daily Communion was not then the custom). He also fasted three days a week and meditated morning and evening.

At the age of fourteen he was convinced that the princely life of honour and riches was not for him. He thought of becoming a Jesuit and this desire was confirmed when he was fifteen, while praying before an image of Our Lady in a Jesuit church. After much opposition and unhappiness from his parents, he finally obtained his father’s consent to enter religious life, having renounced his inheritance in favor of his brother.

He became a novice at seventeen and a half, after presenting himself to Father General Claudio Acquaviva. The maxim that led him to the novitiate remained with him throughout his years: “I am a piece of twisted iron; I entered religion to be untwisted straight.” Aloysius gave himself totally to the process of becoming a Jesuit. He was an excellent student with a penetrating mind.

When famine and plagues broke out in Italy, Aloysius, then studying Theology, begged alms for and worked with the plague-stricken. Those he found dying in the streets, he carried to a hospital, washed and fed them and prepared them to receive the Sacraments. He caught the plague a year later and was confined to bed. He received a revelation in prayer that he would not live long and would die on the octave of Corpus Christi. The young twenty three years old Aloysius died that evening with his eyes fixed on the Crucifix in his hands. The last word he spoke was the holy name of Jesus just as the first words he spoke as an infant were the holy names of Jesus and Mary.

St. Aloysius makes a great example for our youth considering he faced the same kind of challenges they do today such as peer pressure, struggles with remaining pure, and difficulties in choosing and pursuing a vocation. Despite being among very rough and impure people, and despite great parental objections , St. Aloysius maintained a pure heart and became a Jesuit priest.