Saint Alphonsus Liguori
Bishop and Doctor of the Church
- Feast Day
- August 1
- Life
- 1696–1787
- Canonized
- 1839
- Doctor of the Church
- 1871
- Order
- Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists, C.Ss.R.)
- Born
- Marianella (Naples), Kingdom of Naples
Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori was born at Marianella, near Naples, on September 27, 1696, the eldest son of a Neapolitan noble. A child prodigy, he received his doctorate in civil and canon law from the University of Naples at age sixteen and practiced law for eight years with distinction. The loss of an important case in 1723, occasioned by the prince of his client's adversary, prompted his abandonment of the legal profession; before the famous miraculous icon of Our Lady of Mercy at the Hospital for Incurables in Naples, on August 28, 1723, he heard the words Leave the world and give yourself to me and laid down his sword in token of his vocation. He was ordained priest on December 21, 1726.
For ten years he gave himself to popular missions among the most neglected peasants of the Kingdom of Naples, founding small evening chapels (the Cappelle Serotine) for catechetical instruction of the poor. On November 9, 1732, at Scala on the Amalfi coast, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists), a missionary order dedicated to the preaching of plentiful redemption (copiosa apud eum redemptio, Psalm 130:7) to the abandoned poor of the countryside. The order was approved by Pope Benedict XIV in 1749 (men) and 1750 (women, Redemptoristines).
Reluctantly accepting episcopal consecration in 1762 at age sixty-six, Alphonsus served as Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti for thirteen years, reforming his diocese, his clergy, and the seminary, and conducting personal missions throughout his see despite chronic ill health. He resigned the see in 1775 and returned to his Redemptorist house at Pagani, where he spent his remaining twelve years in scholarly work and severe physical sufferings, including a painful bone disease that bent his head permanently into his chest. He died at Pagani on August 1, 1787, at age ninety.
Alphonsus's literary output is extraordinary: more than one hundred separate works, including the nine-volume Theologia Moralis (the Moral Theology), the Glories of Mary (1750, the most widely diffused Marian work in Catholic history), the Visits to the Blessed Sacrament (1745), the Way of the Cross, and the popular Christmas hymn Tu scendi dalle stelle. Pope Gregory XVI canonized him on May 26, 1839; Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church on March 23, 1871; Pope Pius XII made him patron of confessors and moral theologians on April 26, 1950.
Alphonsus's moral theology, against both rigorism (Jansenism) and laxity, was the principal influence in shaping the moderate, prudential, pastoral approach that has been the standard of the Catholic confessional ever since. Pope Benedict XVI, in his General Audience of March 30, 2011, called him a master of moral theology who united tireless apostolic activity with the deepest devotion to the Eucharist and to the Mother of God.
Patronages
confessors · moral theologians · vocations · arthritis sufferers · the Redemptorists
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Alphonsus Liguori
7 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Alphonsus Liguori's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Alphonsus Liguori — Callander, ON
- Saint Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church — Greenwell Springs, LA
- St. Alphonsus Liguori — Saint Louis, MO
- St. Alphonsus Liguori — Pittsford, VT
- National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori — Baltimore, MD
- Saint Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church — Zionsville, IN
- St. Alphonsus Liguori — Prospect Heights, IL
Sources