The version with Italian lyrics was based on his original song written in Neapolitan, which began Quanno nascette Ninno ("When the child was born"). 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. 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. Pure probabilism likens it to a criminal trial, in which the jury must find in favour of liberty (the prisoner at the bar) if any single reasonable doubt whatever remain in its favour. 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. 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. While the continual intensity of reiterated acts of virtue which we have called driving-power is what really creates sanctity, there is another indispensable quality. There he met Bishop Thomas Falcoia, founder of the Congregation of Pious Workers. Lord, When Did We See You Hungry or Thirsty or a Stranger or Naked or Ill or in Prison? He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732. This prayer is a petition asking for the grace to love God more, so as to fear hell and desire to do His . The Saint's confessor declared that he preserved his baptismal innocence till death. For thirteen years Alphonsus fed the poor, instructed families, reorganized the seminary and religious houses, taught theology, and wrote. St. Alphonsus was a brilliant, articulate, pragmatic preacher. 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. 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. Even where he is not that, he may generally be trusted, as he was a Boswell in collecting facts. Riding and fencing were his recreations, and an evening game of cards; he tells us that he was debarred from being a good shot by his bad sight. On 1 April, 1733, all the companions of Alphonsus except one lay brother, Vitus Curtius, abandoned him, and founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, which, confined to the Kingdom of Naples, was extinguished in 1860 by the Italian Revolution. Very few remarks upon his own times occur in the Saint's letters. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tradition of praying the stations of the cross began to develop. He knew that trials were before him. To this altered Rule or "Regolamento", as it came to be called, the unsuspecting Saint was induced to put his signature. Alphonsus agreed to both requests and set out with his two friends, John Mazzini and Vincent Mannarini, in September, 1730. In liturgical art he is depicted as bent over with rheumatism or as a young priest. 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. 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. Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Ecclesiastical approbation. Furthermore, St. Alphonsus was a great theologian, and so attached much weight to intrinsic probability. St. Alphonsus appeared a miracle of calm to Tannoia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. He had a pleasant smile, and his conversation was very agreeable, yet he had great dignity of manner. "St. Alphonsus Liguori". 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. His sermons were very effective at converting those who had been alienated from their faith. On 23 October of the same year, 1723, the Saint put on the clerical dress. His writings on moral, theological, and ascetic matters had great impact and have survived through the years, especially his Moral Theology and his Glories of Mary. 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. Now the saint has a very great momentum indeed, and a spoiled saint is often a great villain. 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. 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. This occurred twice. By AClarke625. "What document is that?" New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. [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. SVO), gives an extremely full and picturesque account of the Saint's life and times. That legacy is the participation in the redemptive mission of Jesus. He was a born leader of men. 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. For six years he laboured in and around Naples, giving missions for the Propaganda and preaching to the lazzaroni of the capital. Ever mindful of his own sins, Saint Alphonsus saw prayer for the faithful departed as one of the chief duties of Christian charity. Learn interesting facts and tidbits about the beloved St. Patrick. He finally agreed to become a priest but to live at home as a member of a group of secular missionaries. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99 Born at Marianella, near Naples, 27 September, 1696; died at Nocera de' Pagani, 1 August, 1787. "Banquets, entertainments, theatres," he wrote later on--"these are the pleasures of the world, but pleasures which are filled with the bitterness of gall and sharp thorns. In 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. 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. 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 . 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. Deposed and excluded from his own congregation, Alphonsus suffered great anguish. In vain those around him and even the judge on the bench tried to console him. In December, 1724, he received minor orders, and the subdiaconate in September, 1725. At all events, it proved disastrous in the result. He was baptized two days later in the church of Our Lady of the Virgins, in Naples. In 1871, Alphonsus was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX. He was somewhat worldly and ambitious, at any rate for his son, and was rough tempered when opposed. Alphonsus, however, was unflagging in his efforts with the Court. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. St. Alphonsus was so scrupulous about truth that when, in 1776, the regalist, Mgr. Alphonsus, assisted by divine grace, did not disappoint his father's care. Alphonsus, having got so much, hoped to get a little more, and through his friend, Mgr. 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). Believe me who have experienced it, and now weep over it." Alphonsus had still one final storm to meet, and then the end. His intercession healed the sick; he read the secrets of hearts, and foretold the future. Canonized: May 26, 1839. But Alphonsus's director, Father Pagano; Father Fiorillo, a great Dominican preacher; Father Manulio, Provincial of the Jesuits; and Vincent Cutica, Superior of the Vincentians, supported the young priest, and, 9 November, 1732, the "Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer", or as it was called for seventeen years, "of the Most Holy Saviour", was begun in a little hospice belonging to the nuns of Scala. A star preacher, he called his fellow sermonizers on the carpet for sermons of "empty, rumbling rhetoric" or "flashy . If in some things Alphonsus was an Anglo-Saxon, in others he was a Neapolitan of the Neapolitans, though always a saint. Preaching, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887, Liguori, Alphonsus. His life contains a number of minor inaccuracies, however, and is seriously defective in its account of the founding of his Congregation and of the troubles which fell on it in 1780. Quite recently, a duet composed by him, between the Soul and God, was found in the British Museum bearing the date 1760 and containing a correction in his own handwriting. 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. (27 September 1696 - 1 August 1787), was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. Saint Alphonsus Liguori 1696 - 1787. [4], Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. 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. His promotion to the episcopate in 1762 led to a renewal of his missionary activity, but in a slightly different form. Patron saint of: people with arthritis, lawyers, vocations. Copyright 2022 Catholic Online. 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 saints are not inhuman but real men of flesh and blood, however much some hagiographers may ignore the fact. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. 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. 1. Alphonsus' last illness and Deaths 548 CHAPTER XXXVII. Tannoia, also, through some mental idiosyncrasy, manages to give the misleading impression that St. Alphonsus was severe. His father, already displeased at the failure of two plans for his son's marriage, and exasperated at Alphonsus's present neglect of his profession, was likely to offer a strenuous opposition to his leaving the world. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. March 1, 1907. A strong defender of the Catholic Church, Liguori said: To reject the divine teaching of the Catholic Church is to reject the very basis of reason and revelation, for neither the principles of the one nor those of the other have any longer any solid support to rest on; they can then be interpreted by every one as he pleases; every one can deny all truths whatsoever he chooses to deny. The Ceremonies of the Interment. Dedicated to Fr. This document gives you the case." Saint Alphonsus De Liguori Usage Public Domain Topics Blessed Virgin Mary, Miracles, Apparitions, Conversion, Saints, Rosary, Sin, Repentance, Catholic Collection opensource Language English Stories from St Alphonsus De Liguori, which he culled from various sources, which can be seen in the larger work, "The Glories of Mary". He wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). Beatified: September 15, 1816. Not less remarkable than the intensity with which Alphonsus worked is the amount of work he did. 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. There are two Sunday services, one at 8:15 and the second at 11. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. He was a man of strong passions, using the term in the philosophic sense, and tremendous energy, but from childhood his passions were under control. From the year 1759 two former benefactors of the Congregation, Baron Sarnelli and Francis Maffei, by one of those changes not uncommon in Naples, had become its bitter enemies, and waged a vendetta against it in the law courts which lasted for twenty-four years. It was this which gave St. Alphonsus the bent head which we notice in the portraits of him. More than once he faced assassination unmoved. ), was published by P. KUNTZ, C.SS.R., director of the Roman archives of his Congregation. In 1871, he was declared a Doctor of the Church. Ultimately, however, anything merely human in this had disappeared. 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. 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. Alphonsus was one of the leading counsel; we do not know on which side. "St. Alphonsus Liguori." It was only after his death, as he had prophesied, that the Neapolitan Government at last recognized the original Rule, and that the Redemptorist Congregation was reunited under one head (1793). In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists, at Scala. On the other hand, ever since the Fall of Man, the will of man has been his greatest danger. "I follow my conscience", he wrote in 1764, "and when reason persuades me I make little account of moralists." Castle, H. (1907). The Saint only wept in silence and tried in vain to devise some means by which his Order might be saved. At the worst, it was only the scaffolding by which the temple of perfection was raised. In 1780, Alphonsus was tricked into signing a submission for royal approval of his congregation. The family was an old and noble one, though the branch to which the Saint belonged had become somewhat impoverished. 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. "You have founded the Congregation and you have destroyed it", said one Father to him. 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. This was in 1780, when Alphonsus was eighty-three years old. 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. Liguoris extensive works fall into three genres: moral theology, best represented by his celebrated Theologia moralis (1748); ascetical and devotional writings, including Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, The True Spouse of Jesus Christ (for nuns), Selva (for priests), and The Glories of Mary, the latter of which became one of the most widely used manuals of devotion to the Virgin Mary; and dogmatic writings on such subjects as papal infallibility and the power of prayer. Alphonsus himself was not spared. From his earliest years he had an anxious fear about committing sin which passed at times into scruple. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. In this state of exclusion he lived for seven years more and in it he died. They followed this gifted preacher from church to church and town to town to hear him give a message of hope in Christ for all people. In the end the Rule was so altered as to be hardly recognizable, the very vows of religion being abolished. 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. I therefore repeat: If the divine teaching authority of the Church, and the obedience to it, are rejected, every error will be endorsed and must be tolerated. and reportedly performed miracles. 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. 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. St. Alphonsus Liguori, the Prince of Moral Theologians, was one of the greatest preachers in Church history. He was born Alphonsus Marie Antony John Cosmos Damien Michael Gaspard de Liguori on September 27,1696, at Marianella, near Naples, Italy. He thought his mistake would be ascribed not to oversight but to deliberate deceit. The Neapolitan stage at this time was in a good state, but the Saint had from his earliest years an ascetic repugnance to theatres, a repugnance which he never lost. Transcription. 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. He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent. Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 99, Appendix to his work on the Council of Trent, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, patron saint archive, St. Alphonsus 'Rock' Liguori Church (St. Louis), "St. Alphonsus Liguori, Our Founder", Redemptorists, Baltimore Province, Tannoja, Antonio. 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 eighteenth century was not an age remarkable for depth of spiritual life, yet it produced three of the greatest missionaries of the Church, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, St. Paul of the Cross, and St. Alphonsus Liguori. Bishop, Doctor of the Church, and the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation. 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. The crisis arose in this way. About three years before his death he went through a veritable "Night of the Soul". St. Alphonsus appeared a miracle of calm to Tannoia. The poor advocate turned pale. An English translation in five volumes is included in the 22 volumes of the American centenary edition of St. Alphonsus's ascetical works (New York). His own prayer was perhaps for the most part what some call "active", others "ordinary", contemplation. In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. 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. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 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. Shop St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori. Resuming the General Audiences after the summer break the last was held on 27 June in the Vatican the Pope . He spent several years having to drink from tubes because his head was so bent forward. His very confessor and vicar general in the government of his Order, Father Andrew Villani, joined in the conspiracy. 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 congregation dedicated primarily to parish and foreign missions. APA citation. 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. First Station: Jesus Is Condemned to Death V. We adore you, Christ, and we praise you. Educated at the University of Naples, Alphonsus received his doctorate at the age of sixteen. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. He first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful. 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. Neapolitan students, in an animated but amicable discussion, seem to foreign eyes to be taking part in a violent quarrel. It saw only recently its first publication in translation, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant and published in 2017 by Mediatrix Press. 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. [4] Myopia and chronic asthma precluded a military career so his father had him educated in the legal profession. It is the following of Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sent to be a clear . The suffering which this brought on Alphonsus, with his sensitive and high-strung disposition, was very great, besides what was worse, the relaxation of discipline and loss of vocations which it caused in the Order itself. In April 1729, the Apostle of China, Matthew Ripa, founded a missionary college in Naples, which became known colloquially as the "Chinese College". St. Alphonsus Liguori Opening Prayer My Lord Jesus Christ, you have made this journey to die for me with infinite love. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01334a.htm. Pope Benedict XIV gave his approval for the men's congregation in 1749 and for the women's in 1750. 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. The immediate author of what was practically a lifelong persecution of the Saint was the Marquis Tanucci, who entered Naples in 1734. 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! After a short interval--we do not know exactly how long--the answer came. In early manhood he became very fond of the opera, but only that he might listen to the music, for when the curtain went up he took his glasses off, so as not to see the players distinctly. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He died on August 1 at Nocera. [5], A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, Doctor of the Church . With their aid, Aiphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on November 9, 1732. Thus was he left free for his real work, the founding of a new religious congregation. It was all-important to the Fathers to be able to rebut the charge of being an illegal religious congregation, which was one of the chief allegations in the ever-adjourned and ever-impending action by Baron Sarnelli. Here he discovered more than thirty thousand uninstructed men and women and four hundred indifferent priests. He fell into a clairvoyant trance at Arienzo on 21 September, 1774, and was present in spirit at the death-bed in Rome of Pope Clement XIV. 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. Alphonsus was lawyer, founder, religious superior, bishop, theologian, and mystic, but he was above all a missionary, and no true biography of the Saint will neglect to give this due prominence. His system of moral theology is noted for its prudence, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigour. Could he have been what an Anglo-Saxon would consider a miracle of calm, he would have seemed to his companions absolutely inhuman. Many years before, in Rome, Falcoia had been shown a vision of a new religious family of men and women whose particular aim should be the perfect imitation of the virtues of Our Lord. Dissension within the congregation culminated in 1777 when he was deceived into signing what he thought was a royal sanction for his rule. Raised in a pious home, Alphonsus went on retreats with his father, Don Joseph, who was a naval officer and a captain of the Royal Galleys. St Alphonsus Mary Liguori and Prayer. The family was of noble lineage, but the branch to which Liguori belonged had become somewhat impoverished. Could he have been what an Anglo-Saxon would consider a miracle of calm, he would have seemed to his companions absolutely inhuman. There were whole years, indeed, in which the Institute seemed on the verge of summary suppression. God, however, intended the new institute to begin with these nuns of Scala.
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