Brother Alphonsus Rodríguez, SJ: the "holy doorkeeper"

Summary:

Born during the golden age of Spain (16th century), Alonso Rodríguez was by no means a conquistador, hidalgo or romancero character. His story didn't start out too badly, however, from a worldly point of view: his father was a wealthy wool and fabric merchant from Segovia, who let one of the first French companions of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Peter Faber, stay in his house when he stayed in Segovia (Faber even prepared Alonso for his First Holy Communion) Alonso was already associated, without his knowing it, to the Society of Jesus from childhood.

At the age of twelve, he was sent to study at a Jesuit college. Unfortunately, his father's sudden death forced him to interrupt his studies after two years: he had to take over the family business with his mother. At the age of twenty-seven, he married Maria Suarez, with whom he had three children. Sadly, his wife died, as did each of the children. To make matters worse, his business, badly managed and taxed, went bankrupt. At the age of thirty-five, the future Saint Alphonsus Rodríguez was alone, ruined, widowed and distraught. He knocked on the door of the Jesuits, who turned him down on the ground that he was too old, not learned enough, and in poor health.

Not one to give up hope, Alphonsus persevered and resumed his studies, but he was turned down again. Even when he tried to become a simple friar, he was rejected, both in Segovia nor in Valencia, until an intuitive provincial realised that Alphonsus was a favored soul precisely because of his simplicity. Finally, on January 31, 1571, at the age of thirty-seven, Alphonsus entered the Jesuit novitiate.

He was soon transferred to the Montesion College in Palma de Mallorca as a porter. This mundane and repetitive task required him to welcome visitors, carry the mail, run errands, give alms to the needy, console the sick at heart, and give advice to the troubled. No one approached him without feeling the immense goodness that emanated from him. Alphonsus greeted every visitor as if he was Christ himself: "What you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me."

From 1579 until his death in 1617, many students benefited from the affection and love of Brother Alphonsus, the humble friar. Among them was Saint Peter Claver who, as a young man, came to that novitiate to discern his vocation. And it was Brother Alphonsus, already 72 years old, who told Claver that God wanted him to spend his life in service in the colonies of New Spain, and frequently urged the young student to accept that calling. Both Rodríguez and Claver were canonised in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII.

However, it was only after the old porter had ascended to heaven that his Spiritual Notes and Memoirs revealed the depth of his soul and the ecstasies and apparitions he experienced.

Saint Alphonsus Rodríguez also became the patron saint of all Jesuit brothers.

Going further:

The life of Blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, lay-brother of the Society of Jesus by Henry Foley,  London : Burns and Oates, 1873, available online

More information:

• "In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Catholic Answers Article "A Saint for the Struggle with Scrupulosity" by Mark A. McNeil