This little book is dedicated to the young men and young women of America, as a short remembrance of that dear friend of God, the beautiful, the holy St. Aloysius, who like us living on this earth, has, by his beautiful life and the fragrance of his virtues taught us that we, too, with the help of the God, who loves us, can keep from sin and even amid the whirl of evil around us, can live holy lives and win the blessed crown of eternal joy which God promises to those who love Him.

This life of St. Aloysius is not a translation of any work, but the material has been taken from the best sources. The authors have drawn largely on that rich mine of ascetic treasures, the Act a Sanctorum of the Bollandists, and have culled there the original, newest and best material at first hand. They have taken all that was interesting from the old life of Fr. Cepari, first written in Italian, translated into poor French, and translated from the French into English, and reprinted with an American preface.

They have also taken what was best and most in- teresting from the recent edition for the centennial, by Fr. Charles Clair, published in 1891, and secured since their won work was taken in hand.

They claim, therefore, that no effort was spared to present to their contemporaries, the young men and young women of America, a good life of St. Aloysius, written especially for them by American college students, whose hope is that this w r ork will be a tribute worthy of the saint in whose honor it was written, and bring both to writers and readers a better knowledge of St. Aloysius, a greater love for and imitation of his beautiful life, and a stronger claim to his powerful intercession with God.

Whatever may be the perfection of the Life, it was a noble and beautiful purpose, that of a band of young men, striving by their efforts to make better known the life of a hero of the Church of God, and the special "Patron of Youth." --Easter 1891