St. Alphonsus Liguori

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Bishop, Confessor & Doctor of the Church

Alphonsus Maria de Liguori was born in the year of Our Lord 1696 to a pious noble Neapolitan family. By age sixteen, he had received his doctorate, and he became one of the greatest lawyers in Naples. Though a faithful Catholic, he was tempted by worldly pursuits and pleasures, though not to any grave sins. After a great humiliation in court sent him into a deep bout of depression, Alphonsus realized God’s will at work, and discerned a vocation. His reluctant parents finally approved, and Alphonsus was ordained at the age of thirty. He quickly became known for clear and simple preaching, and gentleness in the confessional—fruits of his own experience with scrupulosity. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or Redemptorists, and wrote not only great works of moral theology and Mariology, but also popular hymns and carols. He was made a bishop at nearly seventy years of age. Alphonsus suffered patiently from opposition to his good work and from decades of painful arthritis that left him permanently hunched, until his death at the age of ninety, on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, his memorial in the modern calendar. The Church has titled him “Prince of Moral Theologians”.

Traditional Roman Martyrology for August 2nd

AT Nocera-de-Pagani, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, bishop of St. Agatha of the Goths, and founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, distinguished by his zeal for the salvation of souls, by his writings, his preaching, and his example. He was inscribed on the calendar of the saints by pope Gregory XVI, in the year 1839, the fifty-second after his happy death, and was declared Doctor of the Universal Church by Pius IX, according to a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

At Rome, in the cemetery of Callistus, the birthday of St. Stephen, pope and martyr. In the persecution of Valerian, the soldiers suddenly entered whilst he was saying Mass, but he remained before the altar and concluded the sacred mysteries with intrepidity, and was beheaded on his throne.

At Nicaea, in Bithynia, the martyrdom of St. Theodota with her three sons. The eldest, named Evodius, confessing Christ with confidence, was first beaten with rods, by order of Nicetius, ex-consul of Bithynia, and then the mother, with all her sons, was consumed by fire.

In Africa, St. Rutilius, martyr. He had frequently secured safety from the perils of persecution by flight, and sometimes even by means of money, but at last, being unexpectedly apprehended, he was led to the governor, and subjected to many tortures. Afterwards he was cast into the fire, and thus merited the glorious crown of martyrdom.

At Padua, St. Maximus, bishop of that city, who ended his blessed life in peace, with a reputation for miracles.

℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

℟. Thanks be to God.