The next scene show St Aloysius’ professing his vows as a member of the Society of Jesus.
When this scene first began to appear, we saw the haloed priest holding a Host and assumed it must have been St Charles giving Aloysius his first Communion. When we found that scene on the other side, we realised we were wrong!
Unusually for a scene from a saint’s life, it depicts Aloysius with his back to us. This highlights his turning his back on the world to serve Christ alone. Jesuits make their vows during Mass directly to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament just before Communion.
We‘re still not sure who the saintly priest is. The canonised superiors general of the Society St Ignatius and St Francis Borgia both died before 1587, when Aloysius made his vows. We think it is most likely to be St Robert Bellarmine.
A particular highlight of these murals can be seen in the beautiful detail of the acolyte’s candle, where the flame is depicted by a star in gold leaf.
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