Reliquary theca with relic of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., patron of students & AIDS patients

Oval crystal-fronted silver pendant reliquary theca housing a relic of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.  The relic is affixed to a ground of silk, surrounded by silver wire ornamentation and identified in Latin on a fancy manuscript cedula label as S. Aloysii Gonz. (Saint Aloysius Gonzaga). On the back, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of an unidentified Roman Catholic Bishop.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J. (Italian: Luigi Gonzaga; † 1591) was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of an epidemic. He was beatified in 1605, and canonized in 1726. He is a patron of students, Christian youth, Jesuit scholastics, the blind, AIDS patients, AIDS caregivers.