He was somewhat worldly and ambitious, at any rate for his son, and was rough tempered when opposed. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Except for the chances of European war, England and Naples were then in different worlds, but Alphonsus may have seen at the side of Don Carlos when he conquered Naples in 1734, an English boy of fourteen who had already shown great gallantry under fire and was to play a romantic part in history, Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Even the baleful shadow of Voltaire falls across the Saint's life, for Alphonsus wrote to congratulate him on a conversion, which alas, never took place! Feast day: August 1. His works have gone through several thousand editions and have been translated into more than 60 languages. In 1731, the convent unanimously adopted the new Rule, together with a habit of red and blue, the traditional colours of Our Lord's own dress. Canonized: May 26, 1839. At the age of sixteen, on 21 January, 1713, he took his degree as Doctor of Laws, although twenty was the age fixed by the statutes. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. But before he called a witness the opposing counsel said to him in chilling tones: "Your arguments are wasted breath. The family was an old and noble one, though the branch to which the Saint belonged had become somewhat impoverished. But to all this secular history about the only reference in the Saint's correspondence which has come down to us is a sentence in a letter of April, 1744, which speaks of the passage of the Spanish troops who had come to defend Naples against the Austrians. Office Hours: Mon - Fri: 8am-4pm, Saturday: 9am-12pm . St. Alphonsus appeared a miracle of calm to Tannoia. [10] He was proficient in the arts, his parents having had him trained by various masters, and he was a musician, painter, poet and author at the same time. Of extraordinary passive states, such as rapture, there are not many instances recorded in his life, though there are some. This is the great question of "Probabilism". Alphonsus, assisted by divine grace, did not disappoint his father's care. [4] Myopia and chronic asthma precluded a military career so his father had him educated in the legal profession. Patron saint of: people with arthritis, lawyers, vocations. To all his administrative work we must add his continual literary labours, his many hours of daily prayer, his terrible austerities, and a stress of illness which made his life a martyrdom. He answered emphatically: "Never! by S. HORNER (Edinburgh, 1858); VON REUMONT, Die Carafa von Maddaloni (Berlin, 1851, 2 vols. Psychologically, Alphonsus may be classed among twice-born souls; that is to say, there was a definitely marked break or conversion, in his life, in which he turned, not from serious sin, for that he never committed, but from comparative worldliness, to thorough self-sacrifice for God. A piece of evidence was handed to him which he had read and re-read many times, but always in a sense the exact contrary of that which he now saw it to have. When the day came the future Saint made a brilliant opening speech and sat down confident of victory. To come to saints, the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis di Geronimo took the little Alphonsus in his arms, blessed him, and prophesied that he would do great work for God; while a Franciscan, St. John Joseph of the Cross, was well known to Alphonsus in later life. See also HASSALL, The Balance of Power (1715-89) (London, 1901); COLLETTA, History of the Kingdom of Naples, 1734-1825, 2 vols., tr. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. The childish fault for which he most reproached himself in after-life was resisting his father too strongly when he was told to take part in a drawing-room play. Since its publication, it has remained in Latin, often in 10 volumes or in the combined 4-volume version of Gaud. (Rome, 1896). The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano took place in the 8th century: a Basilian monk, who had doubted the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, was celebrating Mass, and at the consecration, saw that the Host had changed into flesh. 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. While affecting to treat the novice with severity and to take no notice of her visions, the director was surprised to find that the Rule which she had written down was a realization of what had been so long in his mind. He was a lawyer, not only during his years at the Bar, but throughout his whole life--a lawyer, who to skilled advocacy and an enormous knowledge of practical detail added a wide and luminous hold of underlying principles. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. There are two Sunday services, one at 8:15 and the second at 11. With the aid of two laymen, Peter Barbarese, a schoolmaster, and Nardone, an old soldier, both of whom he converted from an evil life, he enrolled thousands of lazzaroni in a sort of confraternity called the "Association of the Chapels", which exists to this day. He founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside. First Station: Jesus Is Condemned to Death V. We adore you, Christ, and we praise you. The Ceremonies of the Interment. [4], Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. Here he discovered more than thirty thousand uninstructed men and women and four hundred indifferent priests. He wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Superior of the Propaganda and even Falcoia's friend, Matthew Ripa, opposed the project with all their might. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. St. Alphonsus, however, did not in all things follow their teaching, especially on one point much debated in the schools; namely, whether we may in practice follow an opinion which denies a moral obligation, when the opinion which affirms a moral obligation seems to us to be altogether more probable. Believe me who have experienced it, and now weep over it." Nine editions of the "Moral Theology" appeared in the Saint's life-time, those of 1748, 1753-1755, 1757, 1760, 1763, 1767, 1773, 1779, and 1785, the "Annotations to Busembaum" counting as the first. The poor advocate turned pale. [7] It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples, where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples. Castle, H. (1907). In 1871, he was declared a Doctor of the Church. He was born Alphonsus Marie Antony John Cosmos Damien Michael Gaspard de Liguori on September 27,1696, at Marianella, near Naples, Italy. The prayer he recommended to his Congregation, of which we have beautiful examples in his ascetical works, is affective; the use of short aspirations, petitions, and acts of love, rather than discursive meditation with long reflection. But when the question was put to the community, opposition began. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Though St. Alphonsus was founder and de facto head of the Institute, its general direction in the beginning, as well as the direction of Alphonsus's conscience, was undertaken by the Bishop of Castellamare and it was not till the latter's death, 20 April, 1743, that a general chapter was held and the Saint was formally elected Superior-General. It will be remembered that even as a young man his chief distress at his breakdown in court was the fear that his mistake might be ascribed to deceit. Vol. Alphonsus being so old and so inform he was eighty-five, crippled, deaf, and nearly blind his one chance of success was to be faithfully served by friends and subordinates, and he was betrayed at every turn. There he met Bishop Thomas Falcoia, founder of the Congregation of Pious Workers. [5], A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. [2] Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me."[5]. This involves expressing our faith in Christ and in His Presence in the Eucharist, and asking Him to unite Himself with us. He opposed sterile legalism and strict rigourism. Both last about two hours but are filled with soul-stirring music. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited. In addition his father made him practice the harpsichord for three hours a day, and at the age of thirteen he played with the perfection of a master. Ever mindful of his own sins, Saint Alphonsus saw prayer for the faithful departed as one of the chief duties of Christian charity. In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. [7], On 9 November 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,[10] when Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa told him that it had been revealed to her that he was the one that God had chosen to found the congregation. In 1762 Pope Clement XIII made him bishop of Sant Agata del Goti near Naples; he resigned in 1775 because of ill health. The Saint only wept in silence and tried in vain to devise some means by which his Order might be saved. In liturgical art he is depicted as bent over with rheumatism or as a young priest. It happened that Alphonsus, ill and overworked, had gone with some companions to Scala in the early summer of 1730. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, and he spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent. St. Alphonsus Liguori's prayer to Jesus Christ to obtain His holy love comes from the "Rule of Life", a guide for growing in holiness. Even when taking him into society in order to arrange a good marriage for him, he wished Alphonsus to put God first, and every year father and son would make a retreat together in some religious house. He called his system Equiprobabilism. Testa, the Grand Almoner, even to have his Rule approved. This combination of practical common sense with extraordinary energy in administrative work ought to make Alphonsus, if he were better known, particularly attractive to the English-speaking nations, especially as he is so modern a saint. Even if there be some exaggeration in this, for it is not in an advocate's power always to be on the winning side, the tradition shows that he was extraordinarily able and successful. About 1729, however, Filangieri died, and on 8 October, 1730, Falcoia was consecrated Bishop of Castellamare. Thus was he left free for his real work, the founding of a new religious congregation. It saw only recently its first publication in translation, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant and published in 2017 by Mediatrix Press. In theology Liguori is known as the principal exponent of equiprobabilism, a system of principles designed to guide the conscience of one in doubt as to whether he or she is free from or bound by a given civil or religious law. A religious founder, consummate theologian, and holy man of God, Saint Alphonsus never failed to utter a stirring word that draws out a lively penitence and redoubled dedication to the work of God from his congregation. Not many details have come down to us of Alphonsus's childhood. Liguori was a prolific and popular author. 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. Very few remarks upon his own times occur in the Saint's letters. In 1719, together with a Father Filangieri, also one of the "Pii Operarii", he had refounded a Conservatorium of religious women at Scala on the mountains behind Amalfi. The "Glories of Mary", "The Selva", "The True Spouse of Christ", "The Great Means of Prayer", "The Way of Salvation", "Opera Dogmatica, or History of the Council of Trent", and "Sermons for all the Sundays in the Year", are the best known. Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! Stay up to date with the latest news, information, and special offers. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. St. Alphonsus was a brilliant, articulate, pragmatic preacher. For thirteen years Alphonsus fed the poor, instructed families, reorganized the seminary and religious houses, taught theology, and wrote. He became very popular because of his plain and simple preaching. 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. This Novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory was written by St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), a bishop and founder of the Redemptorist order, and one of the Doctors of the Church. a special feature of his method was the return of the missionaries, after an interval of some months, to the scene of their labours to consolidate their work by what was called the "renewal of a mission.". Neapolitan students, in an animated but amicable discussion, seem to foreign eyes to be taking part in a violent quarrel. He was not afraid of making up his mind. [16] The 21,500 editions and the translations into 72 languages that his works have undergone attest to the fact that he is one of the most widely-read Catholic authors. Saint Alphonsus Liguori 1696 - 1787. When he heard from her of the devotion of the Rosary, which she practiced, and the letter she had received, he ordered all the others to repeatit, and it is related that this monastery became a paradise. It is the following of Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sent to be a clear . He fed the poor, instructed the ignorant, reorganized his seminary, reformed his convents, created a new spirit in his clergy, banished scandalous noblemen and women of evil life with equal impartiality, brought the study of theology and especially of moral theology into honour, and all the time was begging pope after pope to let him resign his office because he was doing nothing for his diocese. Nov 2012. A few months later Alphonsus left his father's house and went to live with Ripa, without, however, becoming a member of his society. Don Joseph agreed to allow his son to become a priest, provided he would give up his proposal joining the Oratory, and would continue to live at home. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. 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. Fearful temptations against every virtue crowded upon him, together with diabolical apparitions and illusions, and terrible scruples and impulses to despair which made life a hell. St. Alphonsus likened the conflict between law and liberty to a civil action in which the law has the onus probandi, although greater probabilities give it a verdict. 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 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. In bestowing the title of "Prince of Moral Theologians", the church also gave the "unprecedented honour 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". Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) was a Neapolitan who founded the Redemptorist Order of priests, a congregation dedicated to providing parish missions, especially to the poor in rural areas. Alphonsus was a devoted friend of the Society of Jesus and its long persecution by the Bourbon Courts, ending in its suppression in 1773, filled him with grief. March 1, 1907. He had a pleasant smile, and his conversation was very agreeable, yet he had great dignity of manner. His intercession healed the sick; he read the secrets of hearts, and foretold the future. He was crushed to the earth. The crisis arose in this way. The priest was Alphonsus. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). A year of trouble and anxiety followed. In the end the Rule was so altered as to be hardly recognizable, the very vows of religion being abolished. Omissions? "Alphonsus was of middle height", says his first biographer, Tannoia; "his head was rather large, his hair black, and beard well-grown." As he did not die till 1808 (his work appeared in 1799) he was a companion of the Saint for over forty years and an eyewitness of much that he relates. In the year 1747, King Charles of Naples wished to make Alphonsus Archbishop of Palermo, and it was only by the most earnest entreaties that he was able to escape. He felt as if his career was ruined, and left the court almost beside himself, saying: "World, I know you now. In the second edition the work received the definite form it has since retained, though in later issues the Saint retracted a number of opinions, corrected minor ones, and worked at the statement of his theory of Equiprobabilism till at last he considered it complete. In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists, at Scala. Dedicated to Fr. In the eight years of his career as advocate, years crowded with work, he is said never to have lost a case. Don Joseph de' Liguori had his faults. More than once he faced assassination unmoved. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. His very confessor and vicar general in the government of his Order, Father Andrew Villani, joined in the conspiracy. A centenary edition, Lettere di S. Alfonso Maria de'Liguori (ROME, 1887, 3 vols. When the Saint began to hear confessions, however, he soon saw the harm done by rigorism, and for the rest of his life he inclined more to the mild school of the Jesuit theologians, whom he calls "the masters of morals". He was a born leader of men. Alternate titles: Saint Alfonso Liguori, Saint Alfonso Maria de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus Maria deLiguori. But how was Alphonsus to grow in this so necessary virtue when he was in authority nearly all his life? He was more concerned with the spiritual conflict which was going on at the same time. He was the eldest of seven children and the hope of his house. He is credited with the position of Aequiprobabilism, which avoided Jansenist rigorism as well as laxism and simple probabilism. Some persons, boasting of being free from prejudices, take great credit to themselvesfor believing no miracles but those recorded in the holy scriptures, esteeming all others. The Holy Father addressed the faithful taking part in the General audience of Wednesday, 1 August [2012], in Piazza della Libert, the square outside the Papal residence in Castel Gandolfo. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady was extraordinary. The Decree of 1779, however, seemed a great step in advance. He was declared "Venerable", 4 May, 1796; was beatified in 1816, and canonized in 1839. He had even tried to form a branch of the Institute by uniting twelve priests in a common life at Tarentum, but the community soon broke up. Could he have been what an Anglo-Saxon would consider a miracle of calm, he would have seemed to his companions absolutely inhuman. Could he have been what an Anglo-Saxon would consider a miracle of calm, he would have seemed to his companions absolutely inhuman. "You have founded the Congregation and you have destroyed it", said one Father to him. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tradition of praying the stations of the cross began to develop. Falcoia, hearing of this, begged his friend to give a retreat to the nuns of his Conservatorium at the same time. In December, 1724, he received minor orders, and the subdiaconate in September, 1725. Revelations from God, the Saints, and the Angels through the Miracle of Saint Joseph, started in 1967 and continuing to this day. [19], His Mariology, though mainly pastoral in nature, rediscovered, integrated and defended that of St Augustine of Hippo, St Ambrose of Milan and other fathers; it represented an intellectual defence of Mariology in the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, against the rationalism to which contrasted his fervent Marian devotion.[20]. Alphonsus wrote profusely on moral, theological, and ascetical subjects [notably his Moral Theology], was constantly engaged in combating anticlericalism and Jansenism, and was involved in several controversies over . As it was traditionally associated with the zampogna, or large-format Italian bagpipe, it became known as Canzone d'i zampognari, the "Carol of the Bagpipers". The difficulty about strong wills and strong passions is that they are hard to tame, but when they are tamed they are the raw material of sanctity. Three years later he published the first sketch of his "Moral Theology" in a single quarto volume called "Annotations to Busembaum", a celebrated Jesuit moral theologian. Alphonsus, however, stood firm; soon other companions arrived, and though Scala itself was given up by the Fathers in 1738, by 1746 the new Congregation had four houses at Nocera de' Pagani, Ciorani, Iliceto (now Deliceto), and Caposele, all in the Kingdom of Naples. Alphonsus had still one final storm to meet, and then the end. It was this which gave St. Alphonsus the bent head which we notice in the portraits of him. 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. Unfortunately, he was not obliged by his confessor, in virtue of holy obedience, as St. Teresa was, to write down his states of prayer; so we do not know precisely what they were. He started again, recruited new members, and in 1743 became the prior of two new congregations, one for men and one for women. The fifth book has two treatises "De Actibus Humanis" and "De Peccatis"; the sixth is on the sacraments, the seventh and last on the censures of the Church. He was now free, subject to the approval of the Bishop of Scala, to act with regard to the convent as he thought best. St. Alphonsus, after publishing anonymously (in 1749 and 1755) two treatises advocating the right to follow the less probable opinion, in the end decided against that lawfulness, and in case of doubt only allowed freedom from obligation where the opinions for and against the law were equal or nearly equal. From his earliest years he had an anxious fear about committing sin which passed at times into scruple. She was told to write it down and show it to the director of the convent, that is to Falcoia himself. This lifelong friendship aided Alphonsus, as did his association with a mystic, Sister Mary Celeste. His friend the Grand Almoner betrayed him; his two envoys for negotiating with the Grand Almoner, Fathers Majone and Cimino, betrayed him, consultors general though they were. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01334a.htm. The Catholic Encyclopedia. According to this view he chose a different formula from the Jesuit writers, partly because he thought his own terms more exact, and, partly to save his teaching and his congregation as far as possible from the State persecution which after 1764 had already fallen so heavily on the Society of Jesus, and in 1773 was formally to suppress it.
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