The suffering which this brought on Alphonsus, with his sensitive and high-strung disposition, was very great, besides what was worse, the relaxation of discipline and loss of vocations which it caused in the Order itself. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. His spirituality was both affective and active, centered above all on the Passion of Jesus Christ as the principal sign of our Savior's love for us. The English translation in the Oratory Series is also rather inadequate. He said himself that he was so small at the time as to be almost buried in his doctor's gown and that all the spectators laughed. It is the following of Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sent to be a clear . In 1762, there was no escape and he was constrained by formal obedience to the Pope to accept the Bishopric of St. Agatha of the Goths, a very small Neapolitan diocese lying a few miles off the road from Naples to Capua. He is the patron of confessors, moral theologians, and the lay apostolate. The version with Italian lyrics was based on his original song written in Neapolitan, which began Quanno nascette Ninno ("When the child was born"). Twelve years, however, still separated him from his reward, years for the most part not of peace but of greater afflictions than any which had yet befallen him. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. He spent the next few years in recasting this work, and in 1753 appeared the first volume of the "Theologia Moralis", the second volume, dedicated to Benedict XIV, following in 1755. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, and he spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. Shop St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Alfonso-Maria-de-Liguori, The Catholic Encyclopedia - Biography of St. Alphonsus Liguori. Of extraordinary passive states, such as rapture, there are not many instances recorded in his life, though there are some. The Spirituality of St. Alphonsus Liguori | The Divine Mercy "Banquets, entertainments, theatres," he wrote later on--"these are the pleasures of the world, but pleasures which are filled with the bitterness of gall and sharp thorns. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Two days after he was born, he was baptized at the Church of Our Lady the Virgin as Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de' Liguori. Feast day: August 1. There were whole years, indeed, in which the Institute seemed on the verge of summary suppression. His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady was extraordinary. Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, C.Ss.R. He was baptized two days later in the church of Our Lady of the Virgins, in Naples. Theabbot of that monastery soon after visited it, and attempted to reform it, but he didnot succeed; and one day he saw a great number of demons entering the cells of all thenuns except that of Jane, for the heavenly mother, before whose image he saw herpraying, banished them from that. [11], Liguori was consecrated Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762. He remained thunderstruck for a moment; then said in a broken voice: "You are right. Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! The eighteenth century was one series of great wars; that of the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian Succession; the Seven Years' War, and the War of American Independence, ending with the still more gigantic struggles in Europe, which arose out of the events of 1789. In December, 1724, he received minor orders, and the subdiaconate in September, 1725. His spirituality was both affective and active, centered above all on the passion of Jesus Christ as the principal sign of our Savior's love for us. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732. In his new abode he met a friend of his host's, Father Thomas Falcoia, of the Congregation of the "Pii Operarii" (Pious Workers), and formed with him the great friendship of his life. His father opposed the plan, but after two months (and with his Oratorian confessor's permission), he and his father compromised: he would study for the priesthood, but not as an Oratorian, and would live at home. In addition, he published many editions of compendiums of his larger work, such as the "Homo Apostolicus", made in 1759. He was thinking of leaving the profession and wrote to someone, "My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death". St. Alphonsus Liguori | EWTN Alphonsus himself was not spared. Stay up to date with the latest news, information, and special offers. The Saint's confessor declared that he preserved his baptismal innocence till death. He came from a wealthy family in Naples, Italy, and had every advantage in life from the moment he was born in 1696. Miraculous Stories of the Blessed Virgin Mary : Saint Alphonsus De In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. He was not afraid of making up his mind. Infidelity and impiety were gaining ground; Voltaire and Rousseau were the idols of society; and the ancien rgime, by undermining religion, its one support, was tottering to its fall. The life of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Bishop of St. Agatha of the To prevent the ship going to pieces on the rocks, it has need of a very responsive rudder, answering to the slightest pressure of Divine guidance. The differentia of saints is not faultlessness but driving-power, a driving-power exerted in generous self-sacrifice and ardent love of God. Pardon me, my God. Alphonsus was the oldest of seven children, raised by a devout mother of Spanish descent. On 21 December of the same year, at the age of thirty, he was ordained priest. His masterpiece was The Moral Theology (1748), which was approved by the Pope himself[5] and was born of Liguori's pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems. A respected opponent was the redoubtable Dominican controversialist, P. Vincenzo Patuzzi, while to make up for hard blows we have another Dominican, P. Caputo, President of Alphonsus's seminary and a devoted helper in his work of reform. It is true that theologians even of the broadest school are agreed that, when an opinion in favour of the law is so much more probable as to amount practically to moral certainty, the less probable opinion cannot be followed, and some have supposed that St. Alphonsus meant no more than this by his terminology. . Alphonsus Liguori, CSsR (27 September 1696 - 1 August 1787), sometimes called Alphonsus Maria de Liguori or Saint Alphonsus Liguori, was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Saint Alphonsus Liguori | Franciscan Media He continued to live with the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy, where he died on 1 August 1787. Ecclesiastical approbation. See also HASSALL, The Balance of Power (1715-89) (London, 1901); COLLETTA, History of the Kingdom of Naples, 1734-1825, 2 vols., tr. Unable to be idle, he had preached to the goatherds of the mountains with such success that Nicolas Guerriero, Bishop of Scala, begged him to return and give a retreat in his cathedral. This prayer is a petition asking for the grace to love God more, so as to fear hell and desire to do His . Besides his Moral Theology, the Saint wrote a large number of dogmatic and ascetical works nearly all in the vernacular. But before he called a witness the opposing counsel said to him in chilling tones: "Your arguments are wasted breath. St. Alphonsus as a moral theologian occupies the golden mean between the schools tending either to laxity or to rigour which divided the theological world of his time. This has recently been translated into English with additions and corrections (Dublin, 2 vols., royal SVO); DUMORTIER, Les premihres Redemptoristines (Lille, 1886), and Le Phre Antoine-Marie Tannoia (Paris, 1902), contain some useful information; as does BERRUTI, Lo Spirito di S. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, 3 ed. If any reader of this article will go to original sources and study the Saint's life at greater length, he will not find his labour thrown away. Blessed Clement Hofbauer joined the Redemptorist congregation in the aged Saint's lifetime, though Alphonsus never saw in the flesh the man whom he knew would be the second founder of his Order. The crisis arose in this way. Even its Rule was made known to her. To this altered Rule or "Regolamento", as it came to be called, the unsuspecting Saint was induced to put his signature. This involves expressing our faith in Christ and in His Presence in the Eucharist, and asking Him to unite Himself with us. Alphonsus had still one final storm to meet, and then the end. St. Alphonsus does not offer as much directly to the student of mystical theology as do some contemplative saints who have led more retired lives. In fact, despite his youth, he seems at the age of twenty-seven to have been one of the leaders of the Neapolitan Bar. In April 1729, the Apostle of China, Matthew Ripa, founded a missionary college in Naples, which became known colloquially as the "Chinese College". Alphonsus was lawyer, founder, religious superior, bishop, theologian, and mystic, but he was above all a missionary, and no true biography of the Saint will neglect to give this due prominence. In 1725, while still a novice, she had a series of visions in which she saw a new order (apparently of nuns only) similar to that revealed to Falcoia many years before. Nihil Obstat. He could never have said Mass again had not an Augustinian prior shown him how to support himself on a chair so that with the assistance of an acolyte he could raise the chalice to his lips. For six years he laboured in and around Naples, giving missions for the Propaganda and preaching to the lazzaroni of the capital. The wine had changed into blood; clotted and separated into 5 different sized clots. So indeed it proved. In 1780, a crisis arose in which they did this, yet in such a way as to bring division in the Congregation and extreme suffering and disgrace upon its founder. He called his system Equiprobabilism. He was a man of strong passions, using the term in the philosophic sense, and tremendous energy, but from childhood his passions were under control. The favors and graces by which God attested his sanctity 526 CHAPTER XXXVI. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99 Born at Marianella, near Naples, 27 September, 1696; died at Nocera de' Pagani, 1 August, 1787. "[17][18], Liguori's greatest contribution to the Catholic Church was in the area of moral theology. "I know his obstinacy", his father said of him as a young man; "when he once makes up his mind he is inflexible". The saints are not inhuman but real men of flesh and blood, however much some hagiographers may ignore the fact.