Saint Alphonsus Liguori 18 Century Jack of All Trades
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was born on September 27, 1696, and he died on August 1, 1787. He was an Italian Catholic bishop and saint, as well as a spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Saint Alphonsus Liguori was a jack of all trades, and unlike many, he was a master of them all. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732.
In 1762, he was appointed Bishop. Saint Alphonsus Liguori was a prolific writer; he published nine editions of his Moral Theology in his lifetime, in addition to other devotional and ascetic works and letters. Among his best-known works are The Glories of Mary and The Way of the Cross, the latter still used in parishes during Lenten devotions. Have you read any of his books?
Saint Alphonsus Liguori Biography
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was born near Naples on September 27, 1696. He was the eldest of seven children. Two days after he was born, he was baptized at the Church of Our Lady of the Virgin as Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de’ Liguori. The family was of noble lineage.
Liguori learned to ride and fence, but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. His poor eyesight and chronic asthma precluded a military career, so he became a lawyer. He went to the University of Naples, where he graduated with a doctorate in civil and canon law at 16.  He became a successful lawyer. 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 the risk of dying an unhappy death.”
At 27, Saint Alphonsus Liguori lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practicing law; he made a firm resolution to leave the profession of law. Moreover, he subsequently reported hearing an “interior voice” saying: “Leave the world and give yourself to me.” In 1723, he decided to offer himself as a novice to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and he was ordained on 21 December 1726. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and the marginalized youth of Naples.
He became very popular because of his plain and simple preaching. He said: “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand.” He founded the Evening Chapels, which were managed by the young people themselves. The chapels were centers of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities, and education. At the time of his death, there were 72, with over 10,000 active participants. His sermons were very effective at converting those who had been alienated from their faith.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. Moreover, he viewed scruples as a blessing at times and wrote: “Scruples are useful in the beginning of conversion…. they cleanse the soul, and at the same time make it careful.” In 1729, he left his family home and took up residence at the Chinese Institute in Naples.
On November 9, 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. When Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa told him that it had been revealed to her that he was the one whom God had chosen to found the congregation. He founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places.
A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. Liguori was consecrated Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti in 1762. He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. He wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
By May 1775, Saint Alphonsus Liguori was “deaf, blind, and laden with so many infirmities that he has no longer even the appearance of a man”, and his resignation was finally accepted by the recently crowned Pope Pius VI. He continued to live with the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy, where he died on August 1, 1787.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori Veneration
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was beatified on September 15, 1816, by Pope Pius VII and canonized on May 26, 1839, by Pope Gregory XVI. In 1949, the Redemptorists, the organization he founded, founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. He was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians by Pope Pius XII on April 26, 1950. In bestowing the title of “Prince of Moral Theologians”, the church also gave the “unprecedented honor she paid to the Saint in her Decree of 22 July 1831, which allows confessors to follow any of St. Alphonsus’s own opinions without weighing the reasons on which they were based.”
Conclusion
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was one of the most accomplished Catholics in history. He chose to use his considerable power to serve the church, and he founded the Redemptionists. He was a spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Many of his writings and hymns survive to this day. So, does the organization he founded.
