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". The traditional Stations of the Cross were written by St. Alphonsus Liguori, a bishop and Doctor of the Church, in 1761. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. Thus was he left free for his real work, the founding of a new religious congregation. 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. But we must not push resemblances too far. If civil courts could not decide against a defendant on greater probability, but had to wait, as a criminal court must wait, for moral certainty, many actions would never be decided at all. Feast Day: August 1. Liguori was a prolific and popular author. St. Alphonsus Liguori - Blessed Are They - U.S. Catholic One branch of the new Institute seen by Falcoia in vision was thus established. The answer is that God kept him humble by interior trials. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. This was in 1780, when Alphonsus was eighty-three years old. PDF Traditional Stations of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Liguori 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). 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. Whenthey had withdrawn into another room, the appearance of the youth changed, and Heshowed Himself crowned with thorns, His flesh torn, and said to her: Prayers in Times of Sickness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. 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. In 1762 Pope Clement XIII made him bishop of Sant Agata del Goti near Naples; he resigned in 1775 because of ill health. Castle, H. (1907). St. Alphonsus Liguori - Tumblar House Catholic Books where the Hosts were buried. The Decree of 1779, however, seemed a great step in advance. St. Alphonsus Liguori: Doctor of The Church - Catholic Tradition He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent. Filingeri, was made Archbishop of Naples, the Saint would not write to congratulate the new primate, even at the risk of making another powerful enemy for his persecuted Congregation, because he thought he could not honestly say he "was glad to hear of the appointment." In 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, Alphonsus said he had a vision of the Virgin Mother in the appearance of a young girl of 13 or 14, wearing a white veil. St. Alphonsus Liguori was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. 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. "What document is that?" It is the following of Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sent to be a clear . Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. The Vicar General, Monsignor Onorati drew up the minutes of the diocesan trial which lasted two years from 1772 to 1774. Alphonsus being so old and so inform he was eighty-five, crippled, deaf, and nearly blind his one chance of success was to be faithfully served by friends and subordinates, and he was betrayed at every turn. In liturgical art he is depicted as bent over with rheumatism or as a young priest. Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. 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. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01334a.htm. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Born: September 27, 1696. " Wonderful worship experience ". It was approved by the king and forced upon the stupefied Congregation by the whole power of the State. First Station: Jesus is condemned to death, Saint of the Day for Saturday, March 4th, 2023, Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, Eighth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. Matters remained thus for some years. He was now free, subject to the approval of the Bishop of Scala, to act with regard to the convent as he thought best. Pope Benedict XIV gave his approval for the men's congregation in 1749 and for the women's in 1750. "I know his obstinacy", his father said of him as a young man; "when he once makes up his mind he is inflexible". The family was of noble lineage, but the branch to which Liguori belonged had become somewhat impoverished. 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. St. Alphonsus appeared a miracle of calm to Tannoia. 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. ST. ROSE VON LIMA, SCHWESTER MARY ALPHONSUS katholisches - eBay 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. Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. 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. But he overcame his depression, and he experienced visions, performed miracles, and gave prophecies. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, Copyright 2022 Catholic Online. The extreme difficulty of the lifelong work of fashioning a saint consists precisely in this, that every act of virtue the saint performs goes to strengthen his character, that is, his will. It happened that Alphonsus, ill and overworked, had gone with some companions to Scala in the early summer of 1730. Updates? The saints are not inhuman but real men of flesh and . Alphonsus left the Hospital and went to the church of the Redemption of Captives. Liguori wrote 111 works on spirituality and theology. Educated at the University of Naples, Alphonsus received his doctorate at the age of sixteen. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. 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. That legacy is the participation in the redemptive mission of Jesus. Psychologically, Alphonsus may be classed among twice-born souls; that is to say, there was a definitely marked break or conversion, in his life, in which he turned, not from serious sin, for that he never committed, but from comparative worldliness, to thorough self-sacrifice for God. 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. Infidelity and impiety were gaining ground; Voltaire and Rousseau were the idols of society; and the ancien rgime, by undermining religion, its one support, was tottering to its fall. 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. In 1871 he was named a doctor of the church by Pope Pius IX. In addition, he published many editions of compendiums of his larger work, such as the "Homo Apostolicus", made in 1759. But when the question was put to the community, opposition began. [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. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Alphonsus Liguori - New Advent [5], A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. The Saint's mother was of Spanish descent, and if, as there can be little doubt, race is an element in individual character, we may see in Alphonsus's Spanish blood some explanation of the enormous tenacity of purpose which distinguished him from his earliest years. In 1734, however, it was reconquered by Don Carlos, the young Duke of Parma, great-grandson of Louis XIV, and the independent Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was established. At the age of sixteen, on 21 January, 1713, he took his degree as Doctor of Laws, although twenty was the age fixed by the statutes. 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. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tradition of praying the stations of the cross began to develop. St. Alphonsus was so scrupulous about truth that when, in 1776, the regalist, Mgr. A centenary edition, Lettere di S. Alfonso Maria de'Liguori (ROME, 1887, 3 vols. About three years before his death he went through a veritable "Night of the Soul". ); JOHNSTON, The Napoleonic Empire in South Italy, 2 vols. 1. He was crushed to the earth. If in some things Alphonsus was an Anglo-Saxon, in others he was a Neapolitan of the Neapolitans, though always a saint. The childish fault for which he most reproached himself in after-life was resisting his father too strongly when he was told to take part in a drawing-room play. St Alphonsus Mary Liguori and Prayer. He had even tried to form a branch of the Institute by uniting twelve priests in a common life at Tarentum, but the community soon broke up. Copyright 2022 Catholic Online. Miracles - Devotion to Our Lady 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. ), was published by P. KUNTZ, C.SS.R., director of the Roman archives of his Congregation. In bestowing the title of "Prince of Moral Theologians", the church also gave the "unprecedented honour she paid to the Saint in her Decree of 22 July 1831, which allows confessors to follow any of St. Alphonsus's own opinions without weighing the reasons on which they were based". Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. St. Alphonsus was a brilliant, articulate, pragmatic preacher. I will love you all my life. 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. A final attempt to gain the royal approval, which seemed as if at last it had been successful, led to the crowning sorrow of Alphonsus's life: the division and apparent ruin of his Congregation and the displeasure of the Holy See. 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. The immediate author of what was practically a lifelong persecution of the Saint was the Marquis Tanucci, who entered Naples in 1734. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. There is a somewhat unsatisfactory French translation of Tannoia's work. There are many editions of the Saint's Moral Theology; the best and latest is that of P. GAUDI, C.SS.R. When we cannot make it to daily Mass, however, we can still make an Act of Spiritual Communion. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. Alphonsus suffers great interior trials. He was fervent about using common words in . 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.". He was baptized two days later in the church of Our Lady of the Virgins, in Naples. 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. Since its publication, it has remained in Latin, often in 10 volumes or in the combined 4-volume version of Gaud. St. Alphonsus does not offer as much directly to the student of mystical theology as do some contemplative saints who have led more retired lives. For three days he refused all food. Contact information. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited. He could never have said Mass again had not an Augustinian prior shown him how to support himself on a chair so that with the assistance of an acolyte he could raise the chalice to his lips. 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. Saint Alphonsus Liguori. 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. This is the great question of "Probabilism". Courts, you shall never see me more." According to this view he chose a different formula from the Jesuit writers, partly because he thought his own terms more exact, and, partly to save his teaching and his congregation as far as possible from the State persecution which after 1764 had already fallen so heavily on the Society of Jesus, and in 1773 was formally to suppress it. The Catholic Encyclopedia. At all events, it proved disastrous in the result. St. Alphonsus Liguori's prayer to Jesus Christ to obtain His holy love comes from the "Rule of Life", a guide for growing in holiness. 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. MIRACLES RELATED BY ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI from his book The Glories of Mary Some persons, boasting of being free from prejudices, take great credit to themselves for believing no miracles but those recorded in the holy scriptures, esteeming all others as tales and fables for foolish women. Alphonsus Liguori | Saints Resource Falcoia, hearing of this, begged his friend to give a retreat to the nuns of his Conservatorium at the same time. [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. These form the first book of the work, while the second contains the treatises on Faith, Hope, and Charity. 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 . A pure and modest boyhood passed into a manhood without reproach. Alphonsus, like so many saints, had an excellent father and a saintly mother. Alphonsus's father, Don Joseph de' Liguori was a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys. About 1729, however, Filangieri died, and on 8 October, 1730, Falcoia was consecrated Bishop of Castellamare. For six years he laboured in and around Naples, giving missions for the Propaganda and preaching to the lazzaroni of the capital. 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. 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. Addeddate 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. He both made and kept a vow not to lose a single moment of time. St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church is known far and wide as "The Rock." The parish is staffed by the Redemptorists, making history in 1922 when it began the weekly novena in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. 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.