Saint Stanislaus Kostka

Stanislaus was born in 1550 to a noble family in Poland and was sent with his older brother Paul to the Jesuit college in Vienna, where Paul often mistreated him for his piety. When he fell gravely ill, according to tradition, he received Holy Communion from angels and was visited by the Virgin Mary, who told him to join the Society of Jesus. Since his father opposed it, he set out on foot in 1567, walked to Saint Peter Canisius in Germany and then to Rome, where Saint Francis Borgia received him. He lived as a joyful, fervent novice for less than a year and died on August 15, 1568, at 17.

His traditional feast is November 13, still kept by the Jesuits and in Poland. His room in the Jesuit novitiate of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in Rome can be visited.