There he met Bishop Thomas Falcoia, founder of the Congregation of Pious Workers. St. Alphonsus Liguori was a bishop and moral theologian living and preaching in Naples in the eighteenth century. In the end a compromise was arrived at. She became known in religion as Sister Maria Celeste. His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady was extraordinary. His hymns are justly celebrated in Italy. 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. Nihil Obstat. "What document is that?" In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tradition of praying the stations of the cross began to develop. These form the first book of the work, while the second contains the treatises on Faith, Hope, and Charity. St. Alphonsus Liguori Opening Prayer My Lord Jesus Christ, you have made this journey to die for me with infinite love. Saint Alphonsus Liguori 1696 - 1787. In the end the Rule was so altered as to be hardly recognizable, the very vows of religion being abolished. He died on the very eve of the great Revolution which was to sweep the persecutors away, having seen in vision the woes which the French invasion of 1798 was to bring on Naples. Moral Theology (also known as the Theologia Moralis) is a nine-volume work concerning Catholic moral theology written between 1748 and 1785 by Alphonsus Liguori, a Catholic theologian and Doctor of the Church.This work is not to be confused with Theologia moralis universa ad mentem S. Alphonsi, a 19th-century treatise by Pietro Scavini written in the philosophical tradition of Alphonsus Liguori. [10] He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. The crisis arose in this way. 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. 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. Dedicated to Fr. Canonized: May 26, 1839. It was approved by the king and forced upon the stupefied Congregation by the whole power of the State. By AClarke625. [7] At 27, after having lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practising law, he made a firm resolution to leave the profession of law. He was a lawyer by the time he was 16 years old! 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. [8] Moreover, Liguori 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". After a short interval--we do not know exactly how long--the answer came. In a riot which took place during the terrible famine that fell upon Southern Italy in 1764, he saved the life of the syndic of St. Agatha by offering his own to the mob. Contact information. The favors and graces by which God attested his sanctity 526 CHAPTER XXXVI. In December, 1724, he received minor orders, and the subdiaconate in September, 1725. When we cannot make it to daily Mass, however, we can still make an Act of Spiritual Communion. He answered emphatically: "Never! While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The differentia of saints is not faultlessness but driving-power, a driving-power exerted in generous self-sacrifice and ardent love of God. The latest life, BERTHE, Saint Alphonse de Liguori (Paris, 1900, 2 vols. Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! 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. 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. This involves expressing our faith in Christ and in His Presence in the Eucharist, and asking Him to unite Himself with us. Both last about two hours but are filled with soul-stirring music. In 1950 he was named patron saint of moralists and confessors by Pope Pius XII. 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. Imprimatur. The Saint's confessor declared that he preserved his baptismal innocence till death. About 1729, however, Filangieri died, and on 8 October, 1730, Falcoia was consecrated Bishop of Castellamare. 1. [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. His perseverance was indomitable. Preaching, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887, Liguori, Alphonsus. Colletta's book gives the best general picture of the time, but is marred by anti-clerical bias. He was declared "Venerable", 4 May, 1796; was beatified in 1816, and canonized in 1839. I will love you all my life. ), was published by P. KUNTZ, C.SS.R., director of the Roman archives of his Congregation. Pardon me, my God. Then God called him to his life work. He was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians by Pope Pius XII on 26 April 1950, who subsequently wrote of him in the encyclical Haurietis aquas. New York: Robert Appleton Company. In 1780, Alphonsus was tricked into signing a submission for royal approval of his congregation. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. [4] He was ordained on 21 December 1726, at the age of 30. God, however, intended the new institute to begin with these nuns of Scala. Educated at the University of Naples, Alphonsus received his doctorate at the age of sixteen. The chapels were centres of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities, and education. He knew how to reach ordinary people who had limited education and very real needs. St. Alphonsus as a moral theologian occupies the golden mean between the schools tending either to laxity or to rigour which divided the theological world of his time. His own prayer was perhaps for the most part what some call "active", others "ordinary", contemplation. In April 1729, Alphonsus went to live at the "Chiflese College," founded in Naples by Father Matthew Ripa, the Apostle of China. By age nineteen he was practicing law, but he saw the transitory nature of the secular world, and after a brief time, retreated from the law courts and his fame. The Vicar General, Monsignor Onorati drew up the minutes of the diocesan trial which lasted two years from 1772 to 1774. In 1724, soon after Alphonsus left the world, a postulant, Julia Crostarosa, born in Naples on 31 October, 1696, and hence almost the same age as the Saint, entered the convent of Scala. Actually, the document was a new rule devised by one of his enemies, thus causing the followers of the old rule to break away. 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. Today I would like to present to you the figure of a holy Doctor of the Church to whom we are deeply indebted because he was an outstanding moral theologian and a teacher of spiritual . Beatified: September 15, 1816. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. The English translation in the Oratory Series is also rather inadequate. Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, C.Ss.R. He came from a wealthy family in Naples, Italy, and had every advantage in life from the moment he was born in 1696. The German life, DILGSKRON, Leben des heiligen Bischofs und Kirchenlehrers, Alfonsus Maria de Liguori (New York, 1887), is scholarly and accurate. Alphonsus himself was not spared. Cavalieri, himself a great servant of God. The wine had changed into blood; clotted and separated into 5 different sized clots. At three different times in his missions, while preaching, a ray of light from a picture of Our Lady darted towards him, and he fell into an ecstasy before the people. In 1762 Pope Clement XIII made him bishop of Sant Agata del Goti near Naples; he resigned in 1775 because of ill health. On 21 December of the same year, at the age of thirty, he was ordained priest. Sarnelli was almost openly supported by the all-powerful Tanucci, and the suppression of the Congregation at last seemed a matter of days, when on 26 October, 1776, Tanucci, who had offended Queen Maria Carolina, suddenly fell from power. Alphonsus Liguori. In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists, at Scala. [6], He became a successful lawyer. Indeed, apart from those who become saints by the altogether special grace of martyrdom, it may be doubted if many men and women of phlegmatic temperament have been canonized. The Catholic Encyclopedia. In fact, in the beginning, the young priest in his humility would not be Superior even of the house, judging one of his companions, John Baptist Donato, better fitted for the post because he had already had some experience of community life in another institute. In case things became hopeless in Naples, he looked to these houses to maintain the Rule and Institute. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, and he spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. But as he drew up a rule for them, formed from that of the Visitation nuns, he does not seem to have had any clear idea of establishing the new institute of his vision. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. In February, 1775, however, Pius VI was elected Pope, and the following May he permitted the Saint to resign his see. He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent. He knew that trials were before him. But we must not push resemblances too far. The Government throughout had recognized the good effect of his missions, but it wished the missionaries to be secular priests and not a religious order. Dignity and Duties of the Priest, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1889, Free scores by Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki), "St Alphonsus", St. Alphonsus on Catholic Online, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alphonsus_Liguori&oldid=1141126599, Founders of Catholic religious communities, 18th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops, 18th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Articles containing Neapolitan-language text, Articles containing Italian-language text, Pages using sidebar with the child parameter, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia without Wikisource reference, Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia without Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Bishop, Moral Theologian, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 13:49. An attack of rheumatic fever, from May 1768 to June 1769, left him paralyzed. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. There can be little doubt but that the young Alphonsus with his high spirits and strong character was ardently attached to his profession, and on the way to be spoilt by the success and popularity which it brought. Other saints and servants of God were those of Alphonsus's own household, the lay brother, St. Gerard Majella, who died in 1755, and Januarius Sarnelli, Csar Sportelli, Dominic Blasucci, and Maria Celeste, all of whom have been declared "Venerable" by the Church. [5] He remarked later that he was so small at the time that he was almost buried in his doctor's gown and that all the spectators laughed. Though a good dogmatic theologian--a fact which has not been sufficiently recognized--he was not a metaphysician like the great scholastics. In September of the next year he received the tonsure and soon after joined the association of missionary secular priests called the "Neapolitan Propaganda", membership of which did not entail residence in common. Saint Alphonsus Liguori described in detail this miracle and took the opportunity to reawake the faith and devotion of the people towards the Eucharist. St. Alphonsus Liguori, in full Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, Alphonsus also spelled Alfonso, (born September 27, 1696, Marianella, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]died August 1, 1787, Pagani; canonized 1839; feast day August 1), Italian doctor of the church, one of the chief 18th-century moral theologians, and founder of the Redemptorists, a 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. In the last years of his life, he suffered a painful sickness and bitter persecution from his fellow priests, who dismissed him from the Congregation that he had founded. Patron saint of: people with arthritis, lawyers, vocations. Eight times during his long life, without counting his last sickness, the Saint received the sacraments of the dying, but the worst of all his illnesses was a terrible attack of rheumatic fever during his episcopate, an attack which lasted from May, 1768, to June, 1769, and left him paralyzed to the end of his days. Here he laid his sword before the statue of Our Lady, and made a solemn resolution to enter the ecclesiastical state, and furthermore to offer himself as a novice to the Fathers of the Oratory. 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. Alphonsus Mary Antony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de' Liguori was born in his father's country house at Marianella near Naples, on Tuesday, 27 September, 1696. He was somewhat worldly and ambitious, at any rate for his son, and was rough tempered when opposed. . He died on August 1 at Nocera. Yet, to take anger alone, though comparatively early in life he seemed dead to insult or injury which affected himself, in cases of cruelty, or of injustice to others, or of dishonour to God, he showed a prophet's indignation even in old age. It may be he was even too anxious, and on one occasion when he was over-whelmed by a fresh refusal, his friend the Marquis Brancone, Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs and a man of deep piety, said to him gently: "It would seem as if you placed all your trust here below"; on which the Saint recovered his peace of mind. So indeed it proved. Don Joseph de' Liguori had his faults. Very few remarks upon his own times occur in the Saint's letters. 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. In 1725, while still a novice, she had a series of visions in which she saw a new order (apparently of nuns only) similar to that revealed to Falcoia many years before. Castle, Harold. 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 risk of dying an unhappy death". Even its Rule was made known to her. 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. His spirituality was both affective and active, centered above all on the Passion of Jesus Christ as the principal sign of our Savior's love for us. In 1732, while he was staying at the Convent of the Consolation, one of his order's houses in the small city of Deliceto in the province of Foggia in Southeastern Italy, Liguori wrote the Italian carol "Tu scendi dalle stelle" ("From Starry Skies Descending") in the musical style of a pastorale. This occurred twice. A long process followed in the Court of Rome, and on 22 September, 1780, a provisional Decree, which on 24 August, 1781, was made absolute, recognized the houses in the Papal States as alone constituting the Redemptorist Congregation. A prolific writer, he published nine editions of his Moral Theology in his lifetime, in addition to other devotional and ascetic works and letters. The Saint's complete dogmatic works have been translated into Latin by P. WALTER, C.SS.R., S. Alphonsi Mariae de Liguori Ecclesiae Doctoris Opera Dogmatica, (New York, 1903, 2 vols., 4to). The dissensions even spread to the nuns, and Sister Maria Celeste herself left Scala and founded a convent at Foggia, where she died in the odour of sanctity, 14 September, 1755. 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.". The priest was Alphonsus. [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. The family was of noble lineage, but the branch to which Liguori belonged had become somewhat impoverished. He wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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