The Superior of the Propaganda and even Falcoia's friend, Matthew Ripa, opposed the project with all their might. About the year 1722, when he was twenty-six years old, he began to go constantly into society, to neglect prayer and the practices of piety which had been an integral part of his life, and to take pleasure in the attention with which he was everywhere received. Alphonsus Liguori was not a favorite with the windbags of his day. His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady was extraordinary. She was declared Venerable 11 August, 1901. [4], Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, Doctor of the Church . Furthermore, St. Alphonsus was a great theologian, and so attached much weight to intrinsic probability. Dissensions arose, the Saint's former friend and chief companion, Vincent Mannarini, opposing him and Falcoia in everything. St. Alphonsus Liguori was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a mysterious light; the house seemed to rock, and an interior voice said: "Leave the world and give thyself to Me." 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. 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. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Alfonso-Maria-de-Liguori, The Catholic Encyclopedia - Biography of St. Alphonsus Liguori. He was not allowed to resign his see, however, until 1775.
"[17][18], Liguori's greatest contribution to the Catholic Church was in the area of moral theology. A companion, Balthasar Cito, who afterwards became a distinguished judge, was asked in later years if Alphonsus had ever shown signs of levity in his youth. 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.
The Spirituality of St. Alphonsus Liguori | The Divine Mercy [10] He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. 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. Naples had been part of the dominions of Spain since 1503, but in 1708 when Alphonsus was twelve years old, it was conquered by Austria during the war of the Spanish Succession. The question as to what does or does not constitute a lie is not an easy one, but it is a subject in itself. 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! Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. [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 intercession healed the sick; he read the secrets of hearts, and foretold the future. 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. 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. St. Alphonsus appeared a miracle of calm to Tannoia. Thus was he left free for his real work, the founding of a new religious congregation. 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. St. Alphonsus Liguori was a bishop and moral theologian living and preaching in Naples in the eighteenth century. He knew how to reach ordinary people who had limited education and very real needs. "I know his obstinacy", his father said of him as a young man; "when he once makes up his mind he is inflexible". 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. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited. He was baptized two days later in the church of Our Lady of the Virgins, in Naples. The third book deals with the Ten Commandments, the fourth with the monastic and clerical states, and the duties of judges, advocates, doctors, merchants, and others. Stay up to date with the latest news, information, and special offers. Printable Catholic Saints PDFs Feast day: August 1. But how was Alphonsus to grow in this so necessary virtue when he was in authority nearly all his life? 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".
Home | St. Alphonsus Rock He was beatified in 1816 and canonized in 1839. Castle, Harold. Office Hours: Mon - Fri: 8am-4pm, Saturday: 9am-12pm . He was more concerned with the spiritual conflict which was going on at the same time. Shrines were built there and at St. Agatha of the Goths. (27 September 1696 - 1 August 1787), was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Cardinals Spinelli, Sersale, and Orsini; Popes Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, Clement XIV, and Pius VI, to each of whom Alphonsus dedicated a volume of his works. In February, 1775, however, Pius VI was elected Pope, and the following May he permitted the Saint to resign his see. Whenthey had withdrawn into another room, the appearance of the youth changed, and Heshowed Himself crowned with thorns, His flesh torn, and said to her: Prayers in Times of Sickness Disease & Danger, True Devotion to Mary (St. Louis de Montfort), The Glories of Mary (St. Alphonsus Liguori), A young nobleman was reading one day, while at sea, an obscene book, in which he. His very confessor and vicar general in the government of his Order, Father Andrew Villani, joined in the conspiracy. Alphonsus left the Hospital and went to the church of the Redemption of Captives. In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. But, before relating the episode of the "Regolamento", as it is called, we must speak of the period of the Saint's episcopate which intervened. One branch of the new Institute seen by Falcoia in vision was thus established. "Alphonsus was of middle height", says his first biographer, Tannoia; "his head was rather large, his hair black, and beard well-grown." Alternate titles: Saint Alfonso Liguori, Saint Alfonso Maria de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus Maria deLiguori. Not many details have come down to us of Alphonsus's childhood. If any reader of this article will go to original sources and study the Saint's life at greater length, he will not find his labour thrown away. Soon after this the boy began his studies for the Bar, and about the age of nineteen practised his profession in the courts. He knew that trials were before him. [15] The church did not bestow this unique privilege lightly but was due to the extraordinary combination of exceptional knowledge and understanding of church teachings combined with the great precision in which he wrote. 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. Transcription. The Ceremonies of the Interment. These form the first book of the work, while the second contains the treatises on Faith, Hope, and Charity. The English translation in the Oratory Series is also rather inadequate. SVO), gives an extremely full and picturesque account of the Saint's life and times. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Matters remained thus for some years. at last came peace, and on 1 August, 1787, as the midday Angelus was ringing, the Saint passed peacefully to his reward. An interesting series of portraits might be painted of those who play a part in the Saint's history: Charles III and his minister Tanucci; Charle's son Ferdinand, and Ferdinand's strange and unhappy Queen, Maria Carolina, daughter of Maria Teresa and sister of Marie Antoinette. Alphonsus, however, was unflagging in his efforts with the Court. By AClarke625. 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. [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. Finally, St. Alphonsus was a wonderful letter-writer, and the mere salvage of his correspondence amounts to 1,451 letters, filling three large volumes. 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". Mimoires sur la vie et la congrigation de St. Alphonse de Liguori (Paris, 1842, 3 vols.). Father Francis de Paula, one of the chief appellants, was appointed their Superior General, "in place of those", so the brief ran, "who being higher superiors of the said Congregation have with their followers adopted a new system essentially different from the old, and have deserted the Institute in which they were professed, and have thereby ceased to be members of the Congregation." When we cannot make it to daily Mass, however, we can still make an Act of Spiritual Communion. 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. Visiting the local Hospital for Incurables on August 28, 1723, he had a vision and was told to consecrate his life solely to God. A pure and modest boyhood passed into a manhood without reproach. In 1762 Pope Clement XIII made him bishop of Sant Agata del Goti near Naples; he resigned in 1775 because of ill health. Preaching, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887, Liguori, Alphonsus. He was a lawyer by the time he was 16 years old! Omissions? [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". Alphonsus' last illness and Deaths 548 CHAPTER XXXVII. 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. [2] Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me."[5]. It was through Louis Florent Gillet, Redemptorist priest and co-founder of the Sisters of IHM that we have been gifted with the legacy of St. Alphonsus Liguori. 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. In 1749, the Rule and Institute of men were approved by Pope Benedict XIV, and in 1750, the Rule and Institute of the nuns. Born: September 27, 1696. About 1729, however, Filangieri died, and on 8 October, 1730, Falcoia was consecrated Bishop of Castellamare. This was to be a momentous revolution for Alphonsus. Daily Readings for Friday, March 03, 2023, St. Katharine Drexel: Saint of the Day for Friday, March 03, 2023, Lenten Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Monday, February 27, 2023. St. Alphonsus tell us: "Modern heretics make a mockery of wearing the Scapular, they decry it as so much trifling nonsense." Yet many of the popes have approved and recommended it. The Glories of Mary ( Italian: Le glorie di Maria) is a classic book in the field of Roman Catholic Mariology, written during the 18th century by Saint Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church . Except in '45, in all of these, down to the first shot fired at Lexington, the English-speaking world was on one side and the Bourbon States, including Naples, on the other. The saints are not inhuman but real men of flesh and blood, however much some hagiographers may ignore the fact. There is a somewhat unsatisfactory French translation of Tannoia's work. It is the following of Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sent to be a clear . He had a love for the lower animals, and wild creatures who fled from all else would come to him as to a friend. So bent was it in the beginning, that the pressure of his chin produced a dangerous wound in the chest. Saint Alphonsus Liguori's Story Moral theology, Vatican II said, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world. Soon after, Falcoia made known to the latter his vocation to leave Naples and establish an order of missionaries at Scala, who should work above all for the neglected goatherds of the mountains. Neapolitan students, in an animated but amicable discussion, seem to foreign eyes to be taking part in a violent quarrel. Imprimatur. 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.
St. Alphonsus Liguori - Blessed Are They - U.S. Catholic Entdecke ST. ROSE VON LIMA, SCHWESTER MARY ALPHONSUS katholisches heiliges Buch in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! You have overlooked a document which destroys your whole case." 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. He is the patron of confessors, moral theologians, and the lay apostolate. In 1950 he was named patron saint of moralists and confessors by Pope Pius XII. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and the marginalized youth of Naples. In all this there was no serious sin, but there was no high sanctity either, and God, Who wished His servant to be a saint and a great saint, was now to make him take the road to Damascus. The poor advocate turned pale. Alphonsus, like so many saints, had an excellent father and a saintly mother. If we except a few poems published in 1733 (the Saint was born in 1696), his first work, a tiny volume called "Visits to the Blessed Sacrament", only appeared in 1744 or 1745, when he was nearly fifty years old. Alphonsus was the oldest of seven children, raised by a devout mother of Spanish descent. 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. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. [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. Here he discovered more than thirty thousand uninstructed men and women and four hundred indifferent priests. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 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. March 1, 1907. 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. 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.
Brown Scapular Miracles 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.