John Berchmans

Son of a shoemaker of Diest, John Berchmans entered the Jesuits at seventeen and went to continue his studies in Rome, which he reached on foot from Antwerp. He has no visions, no foundation, no martyrdom: tradition credits him with the maxim — "my greatest penance is the common life" — that says everything of his holiness, which consists in doing exactly and cheerfully what the rule asks. In early August 1621 he took part in a philosophy disputation at the Greek College, caught a fever there and died a week later in the infirmary, on 13 August, at twenty-two, clutching his crucifix, his rosary and his book of rules. Canonised in 1888, he is with Aloysius Gonzaga and Stanislaus Kostka one of the three Jesuit patrons of youth.