# Matins Nocturn 2-3 readings for St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor
# (June 21). Sourced directly from
# web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/06-21.txt, English/Sancti/06-21.txt.
# Nocturn 2: Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one continuous vita.
# Nocturn 3: his own Gospel citation ends "Et réliqua"/"And so on"
# with no full pericope given -- per the bare-incipit convention, only
# the homily (Lectio7-9, St. John Chrysostom on virginity) is
# authored, isGospel: false, no citation field.
id: st-aloysius-gonzaga
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    text:
      la: >-
        Aloisius, Ferdinandi Gonzagæ Castellionis Stiverorum marchionis filius,
        festinato propter vitæ periculum baptismo, prius cælo quam terris nasci visus,
        primam illam gratiam tam constanter retinuit, ut in ea confirmatus crederetur.
        A primo rationis usu, quo se Deo statim obtulit, vitam duxit quotidie
        sanctiorem. Novennis Florentiæ ante aram beatæ Virginis, quam parentis loco
        semper habuit, perpetuam virginitatem vovit: eamque, insigni Dei beneficio,
        nulla mentis aut corporis pugna tentatam servavit. Reliquas animi
        perturbationes cœpit ætate illa tam fortiter comprimere, ut ne primo quidem
        earum motu deínde incitaretur. Sensus etiam, oculos præcipue, ita cohibuit, ut
        non modo illos numquam in faciem intenderit Mariæ Austriacæ, quam plures annos
        inter honorarios Hispaniarum principis ephebos fere quotidie salutavit; sed a
        matris étiam vultu contineret: homo propterea sine carne, aut angelus in carne
        merito appellatus.


        Adjecit sensuum custodiæ corporis cruciatum. Tria singulis hebdomadis jejunia,
        eaque plerumque modico pane et aqua tolerabat, quamquam perpetuum fuísse per id
        tempus ipsius jejunium videri potest, cum ejus prandia ferme vix unciam
        æquarent. Sæpe étiam ter in die se funibus aut catenis cruentabat: flagella
        quandoque canum loris, cilicia equorum calcaribus supplevit. Mollem lectulum
        clam injectis asserum fragmentis asperabat, eo étiam ut citius ad orandum
        excitaretur, magnam quippe noctis partem, summa étiam hieme, solo tectus
        indusio, positis humi genibus, vel præ languore jacens ac pronus, in
        cælestium contemplatione traducebat. Interdiu quoque tres, quatuor, quinque
        horas in ea perstabat immotus, donec unam saltem animo nusquam distracto
        percurrisset. Cujus constantiæ præmium fuit stabilitas mentis inter orandum
        alio non vagantis, immo perpetua velut extasi in Deo defixæ. Ei demum ut
        unice adhæreret, victo post triennale acerrimum certamen patre, et aviti
        principatus jure in fratrem translato, societati Jesu, ad quam cælesti voce
        Matriti fuerat accitus, Romæ se adjunxit.


        In tirocinio ipso virtutum omnium magister haberi cœpit, Exactissima in eo
        erat legum étiam minimarum custodia, mundi contemptus singularis, implacabile
        odium sui, Dei vero amor tam ardens, ut corpus étiam sensim absumeret, Jussus
        propterea mentem a divinis rebus tantisper avertere, occurrentem sibi ubique
        Deum irrito conatu fugiebat. Mira étiam proximos caritate amplexus, in
        publicis, quibus alacriter ministrabat, nosocomiis, contagiosam luem traxit,
        Qua lente consumptus, die quem prædixerat, undecimo Kalendas Julii, ætatis
        anno quarto et vigesimo jam inchoato, cum antea flagellis cædi, atque humi
        stratus mori postulasset, migravit in cælum, Ibi eum sancta Maria Magdalena
        de Pazzis tanta frui gloria, Deo monstrante, vidit, quantam vix esse in cælo
        credidisset; ipsumque sanctimonia insignem, et caritate Martyrem incognitum
        fuísse prædicavit, Multis étiam magnisque claruit miraculis, Quibus rite
        probatis, Benedictus decimus tertius Sanctorum fastis angelicum juvenum
        adscripsit, atque innocentiæ et castitatis exemplar simul et patronum
        studiosæ præsertim juventuti dedit.
      en: >-
        Aloysius, eldest son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, Marquess of Castiglione, was so
        hurriedly baptized on account of danger that he seemed to be born to heaven
        almost before he was born to earth, and he so faithfully kept that his first
        grace that he seemed to have been confirmed therein. From his first use of
        reason, which he employed to offer himself to God, he led a life more holy day
        by day. At Florence, when he was nine years old, he made a vow of perpetual
        virginity before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin, upon whom he always looked
        as in the place of a mother to him, and by a remarkable mercy from God, he
        kept this vow wholly and without the slightest impure temptation, either of
        mind or body, during his whole life. As for any other uprisings of the soul,
        he began at that age to check them so sternly, that he was never more pricked
        by even their earliest movements. His senses, and especially his eye-sight, he
        so mortified, that he never once looked upon the face of Mary of Austria,
        whom, when he was for several years one of the Pages of honour of the King of
        Spain, he saluted almost every day; and he even denied himself in part the
        pleasure of looking on the face of his own mother. He might indeed have been
        justly called a fleshless man, or an infleshed angel.


        With this fettering of the senses he added torture of the body. He kept three
        days as fasts in every week, and that mostly upon a little bread and water.
        But indeed he as it were fasted every day, for he hardly ever took so much as
        an ounce weight of food at breakfast. Often also, even thrice in one day, he
        would lash himself to flowing of blood with cords, or prick himself with
        spiked chains. He sometimes used a dog-whip, instead of a scourge, and the
        rowels of spurs instead of hair-cloth. He privately filled his soft bed with
        pieces of broken plates, that he might find it easier to wake to pray. He
        passed great part of the night, clad only in a shirt even in the depth of
        winter, kneeling on the ground, or lying flat on his face when too weak and
        weary to remain upright, busied with heavenly thoughts. Sometimes he would
        keep himself thus for three, four, or five hours, until he had spent at least
        one without any movement of body or any wandering of mind. Such perseverance
        obtained for him the reward of being able to keep his understanding quite
        concentrated in prayer without distraction, as though rapt in God in an
        unbroken extasy. Desiring to give himself up to Him alone, he overcame, after
        a strong opposition for three years, the objections of his father, procured
        the transfer to his brother of his right to the Marquessate, and joined at
        Rome the Society of Jesus, to which he had been called by a voice from heaven
        when he was at Madrid.


        In his very Noviciate he began to be held a master of all godliness. His
        obedience to even the most trifling rules was absolutely exact, his
        indifference to the world extraordinary, and his hatred of self implacable.
        His love of God was so keen that it gradually undermined his bodily strength.
        Being commanded to give his mind some rest from thinking unceasingly of God,
        he struggled vainly to distract himself from Him Who met him everywhere. From
        tender love toward his neighbour, he joyfully ministered to the sick in the
        public hospitals, and in the exercise of this charity he caught a deadly
        disease. This sickness slowly wore him away, and soon after he had entered on
        the 24th year of his age, upon a day which he had himself foretold, after
        entreating that he might be scourged, and laid upon the ground to die, he
        passed away to heaven. What the glory is which he there enjoyeth holy Mary
        Magdalen de' Pazzi was enabled, by the revelation of God, to behold, and she
        declared that it was such as she had hardly believed existed even in heaven,
        and that his holiness and love were so great that she should call him an
        unknown martyr of charity. On earth God glorified him by many great miracles.
        These being duly proved, Benedict XIII inserted the name of this angel lad in
        the Kalendar of the Saints, and commended him to all young scholars both as a
        pattern of innocency and purity, and as a patron.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }

  - nocturn: 3
    isGospel: false
    source: "St. John Chrysostom, Book on Virginity"
    text:
      la: >-
        Virginitas est bona: id ego quoque fateor. Atqui nuptiis étiam melior et
        istud tibi assentior: ac si libet, illud adjungam, tanto nuptiis eam
        præstare, quanto cælum terræ, quanto hominibus Angeli antecellunt: ac, si
        quid præterea addendum est, étiam magis. Nam si neque nubunt Angeli, neque
        uxorem ducunt, non étiam carne et sanguine coagmentati sunt: in terris
        præterea non commorantur, non cupiditatum aut libidinum perturbationibus
        sunt obnoxii; non cibi indigent, aut potus; non sunt ejusmodi, ut eos dulcis
        sonus, aut cantus mollis, aut præclara species possit allicere; nulla
        denique ejus generis illecebra capiuntur.


        At humánum genus cum natura beatis illis mentibus inferius sit, omni vi
        studioque contendit, ut, quoad ejus fieri potest, illas assequatur. Quomodo?
        Non nubunt Angeli: at neque étiam virgo. Assistentes illi semper ad Deum,
        eidem inserviunt; et istud ipsum virgo. Quod si virgines, quamdiu corporis
        onere deprimuntur, quemadmodum Angeli in cælum nequeunt ascendere, illud eo
        vel maximo solatio compensant, quod modo spiritu et corpore sancti sint,
        cæli Regem recipiunt. Videsne virginitatis præstantiam? quomodo terrarum
        incolas sic afficiat, ut qui corpore vestiti sunt, eos incorporeis mentibus
        exæquet?


        Qua enim, quæso, re differebant ab Angelis Elias, Eliseus, Joannes, veri hi
        virginitatis amatores? Nulla, nisi quod mortali natura constabant. Nam
        cetera si quis diligenter inquirat, hi nihilo minus affecti reperientur,
        quam beatæ illæ mentes: et idipsum quo inferiore conditione videntur esse,
        in magna est eorum laude ponendum. Ut enim terrarum incolæ, et ii qui essent
        mortali natura, possent ad illam virtutem vi et contentione pervenire; vide
        quanta eos fortitudine, quanta vitæ ratione præditos fuísse oporteat.
      en: >-
        This I say, that virginity is good. And in this I agree likewise, that it is
        better than marriage. And I will even add, that it is as much more excellent
        than marriage, as heaven is more noble than earth, or Angels than men, and
        indeed, if I must say more, even more so. For if Angels neither marry nor are
        given in marriage, at least, they are not creatures of flesh and blood, they
        dwell not upon earth, they are exposed to no restless troublings of desire or
        lust, they need neither meat nor drink, they are not such that sweet sound, or
        soft song, or the delight of beauty can charm them; there is nothing of this
        sort to take hold on them and draw them away.


        Yet the human nature which striveth its utmost to follow them, is not so
        exalted as that of these blessed intelligences. How? Angels marry not nor are
        given in marriage; neither doth a virgin. Angels stand ever before God, and
        serve Him; and so doth a virgin. But if a virgin, still weighed down with this
        body, and unable, like the Angels, to ascend to heaven, doth make it his one
        great comfort here to be holy in body and in spirit, and to open his heart for
        a home for the King of heaven; dost thou not see wherein a virgin is higher
        than an Angel? The excellence of virginity in men over virginity in Angels
        lieth in this, that it maketh them which are yet earth-dwellers and
        body-burdened equal to intelligences unshackled by bodies.


        In what respect, I ask, differed Elijah, Elisha, and John, those great lovers
        of virginity, from Angels? In nothing, except that their faithfulness was
        exercised in a dying body. For the rest, if we look carefully, their minds
        were no otherwise than those of the blessed spirits, and their crown of glory
        is this: that they attained the same honour under conditions less favourable.
        For consider of what manliness, of what superiority of reason over feeling
        they must have been possessed, to enable them bravely to fight their way,
        earth-dwellers and dying creatures as they were, to the bright summit of
        grace which was theirs.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
