Oval glass-fronted brass pendant reliquary theca housing the first-class ex ossibus (of a bone) relic of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. A substantial relic is affixed to a silk ground surrounded by gilt silver wire ornamentation and identified in Latin on a somewhat faded manuscript cedula label as S. Aloisii. di Gonz. (Saint Aloysius Gonzaga). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of Monsignor Carlo Maria Francesco Caselli O.S.M. (†1828), Archbishop of Parma (1804–1828). The relic is accompanied by the original matching authentics document issued and sealed by the order of Cardinal Caselli in 1824.
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.