Saint Alphonsus Liguori: a lawyer takes on supernatural work

Summary:

Alphonsus was the eldest son of a family of noble lineage but impoverished, from the Kingdom of Naples, then owned by the Spanish crown. His father, Giuseppe Liguori, an overly authoritarian man, was a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys.  His mother, Anna Caterina, on the other hand, was a gentle and pious woman. It was she who gave her children a solid and consistent Christian education, and inspired Alphonsus' deep devotion to the Virgin Mary. One of her brothers (Alphonsus' uncle) was bishop of Troia, and two of her sisters (the future saint's aunts) were Franciscan nuns. Alphonsus was baptised two days after his birth, on September 29, 1696.

The young Alphonsus was a very bright student: his two tutors, both priests, taught him Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, history, mathematics and physics, all subjects in which he showed great aptitude. It was easy to see that he would have an important career in Neapolitan society. His second tutor, don Rocco, added lessons in architecture, painting, fencing and philosophy. This was an important stage for the boy, who became fascinated by the cultural heritage of Antiquity, and wondered about the encounter between Christian revelation and Greek thought.

At the age of nine, Alphonsus made his First Communion and joined the congregation of the young nobles of Saint Joseph, a kind of charity run by the local nobility. Being confronted with poverty and illness for the first time in his life left a deep impression on him.

Alphonsus was encouraged by his father to study law. Despite his young age (twelve), he was allowed to enroll at the University of Naples. His philosophy professor was the exceptional Giambattista Vico, with whom he maintained a friendly relationship for several years. He graduated with doctorates in civil and canon law at 16, in 1713. He even wrote his first text, a moral code for lawyers. In the evenings, when he had finished his research, he mingled with other students in the streets of Naples. The light, student atmosphere suited him, even if deep down he felt the transitory nature of the secular world.

By age nineteen he was practicing law. His oral arguments were highly sought. At that time, his spiritual life was still minimal, mainly attending mass and receiving the sacraments, but nothing more. On the other hand, his concern for the poor was growing. He joined the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Visitation. He was a member for the next eight years. It was a seminal experience: he visited the needy in the Neapolitan hospital of St Mary of the People.

The following year, he joined the Confraternity of Mercy, helping and comforting imprisoned religious and the poor of Naples, to ensure that they were given a decent burial. One day, Alphonsus' father returned from a sea voyage with a Muslim slave, whom he put to work for him. Alphonsus got to know the slave and enjoyed a good relationship with him. But, horrified by the way some men treated their fellow human beings, he declared that this slave deserved to be freed.

During Holy Week in 1722, Alphonsus took part in a spiritual retreat on the theme of hell. It was a huge shock. He became aware of something new to him: God loves mankind to the point of abasing himself to reach them, but the latter, by their dissolute or indifferent lives, are distancing themselves from him. He felt a deep call to convert and to offer his life for God, and center it on charity, not occasionally but permanently. He wondered, "What was my life before this moment?" His religious practice changed completely: he began the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, long and recurrent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, daily recitation of the Rosary, etc.

During his adolescence, Alphonsus had envisioned becoming a priest, but this aspiration was prevented by his father's will and the circumstances of his life. This time, he was certain, the Lord was calling him to the priesthood and to the service of the poor. In addition to this conversion, Providence offered Alphonsus an ideal opportunity to turn towards the priesthood: he lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practising law. He then decided to leave the profession. Then, on August 28, 1723, while helping the sick at the Incurables hospice in Naples, he was suddenly surrounded by a supernatural light and heard a voice say to him: "Abandon the world and give yourself to me." How could he not respond to this call from God?

Relations with his father were tense. Alphonsus suffered persecution from his family. His father opposed his plans to enter the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and insisted that he not give up his career as a lawyer, and threatened to disown him. Through to the intervention of the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples, Francesco Pignatelli, Alphonsus finally agreed to become a priest but to live at home as a member of a group of secular missionaries.

He was therefore admitted as a candidate for the priesthood. The conditions of his studies were precarious. At the time, Naples did not yet have a proper seminary, so he had to train in the pastoral field by helping a parish priest and, in the evenings, read theologians, moralists and other liturgists. With persistence, perseverance and grace, he was ordained a priest on December 21, 1726. He was then 31 years old. He spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. The first years of his priesthood he had to live at his parents' home, because his father wanted to maintain some control on his reputation, as his radical conversion were the talks of Neapolitan high society. He gave Alphonsus a monthly allowance and a servant. But the young priest wanted his freedom, and above all to serve God in a much more generous way. He therefore renounced his father's inheritance.

For a while, Alphonsus lived with Father Ripa, a priest and former missionary in China. Father Ripa soon introduced him to another priest, Don Thomas Falcoia, in his sixties, who had had a mystical vision years before of nuns and religious brothers wearing a new habit, all destined to imitate the virtues of Jesus Christ. Father Falcoia had founded of the Congregation of Pious Workers. Now, in 1724, Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa , who had joined this small community, had in turn had several visions: the Church would approve a new female order similar to that of Father Falcoia. Her confessor then asked her to write down her experience and communicate her notes to the convent's director, Father Falcoia himself!

For various reasons, Falcoia was unable to found his order quickly. In the summer of 1730, Providence acted again in an unexpected way: Alphonsus went to Father Falcoia's community to rest. His reputation for holiness began to grow in the Naples area; when the priests and the Bishop of Scala heard that he was successfully preaching to the shepherds he had met on his way to the convent, they immediately asked him to speak to the nuns in the community where he was to spend a few days resting. There he met a mystic nun called Sister Maria Celeste. Her visions confirmed Alphonsus in his plan to found a religious order to serve the needy: this was to be the congregation of the Redemptorists, whose red and blue habit, were even part of the vision.

On October 3, 1731, Sr. M. Celeste saw Christ and St Francis of Assisi; a priest was standing beside them. She recognized him: it was Alphonsus. She heard: "I chose him to lead my institute." A year later, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer was born. The structure was divided into two branches: one for men and one for women. Alphonsus was obviously at the head of the congregation, but in practice, it was the bishop of Castellammare, the region where the small establishment was located, who oversaw convent life until 1743. Difficulties arose immediately. Tensions arose between its members, and it was not until 1749 that Pope Benedict XIV gave his approval for the men's congregation. 

For years after that, Alphonsus' activity level was extraordinary. He gave many missions in rural areas. In 1762, he was elected Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. His workload increased tenfold. When he arrived, the diocese was in need of everything: there was no seminary, no congregation, no Catholic school... He managed to bring it back to life in just a few years, through hard work and sacrifice. He fed the poor, instructed families, reorganized the seminary and religious houses, taught theology, and wrote. Some days, dozens of parents, aware of his gift for healing, brought their sick children to him. Some were healed by a prayer and a simple sign of the cross.

Since 1732, the Order had come close to disappearing several times, due to internal divisions and external pressure. Alphonsus never gave up or even gave in to the temptation to despair, knowing that hope, in all situations, including the most difficult, comes from God. He spent the last seven years of his life in a kind of disgrace, not for spiritual reasons, but on account of a painful sickness and persecution from his fellow priests, who dismissed him from the Congregation that he had founded. Suffering the anguish of exclusion, he also endured deafness, blindness, and paralysis after an attack of rheumatic fever. He received the last rites eight times!

From 1784 onwards, Alphonsus experienced a "night of the soul", a phenomenon well known to many saints and mystics (such as Saint Therese of Lisieux). He died in the peace of Christ on August 1, 1787. The adventure of the Redemptorists had barely begun.

Alphonsus was proclaimed blessed in 1816 by Pope Pius VII, canonized in 1839 by Gregory XVI, and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church Pius IX in In 1871.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Saint Alphonsus Liguori is one of the greatest moral theologians of the 18th century - which is also the century of the Enlightenment. His extensive works on moral, theological, and ascetic matters had great impact and have survived through the years, especially his materpiece, Moral Theology, born of his pastoral experience, and his Glories of Mary. 

Going further:

Saint Alphonsus Liguori: Doctor of the Church by Fr. D. F. Miller, C.SS.R, Fr. L. X. Aubin, C.SS.R, TAN Books, 1940

More information:

• Moral Theology (Theologia Moralis), by Alphonsus Liguori, Ryan Grant (Translator), Mediatrix Press (March 30, 2017)
• Liguori's masterworks: The Way of the Cross; The Sermons of St. Alphonsus; How to Converse with God; Uniformity with God's Will; What Will Hell Be Like? ; The Glories of Mary; Visits to the Blessed Sacrament; Preparation for Death: A Popular Abridgement; The Twelve Steps to Holiness & Salvation; Attaining Salvation
• Benedict XVI, " General Audience: Saint Alphonsus Liguori ", March 30, 2011.