Fr. D. F. Miller - St. Alphonsus Liguori

Saint Alphonsus
Liguori

Father D. F. Miller, C.SS.R.
and

Father L. X. Aubin, C.SS.R.

Copyright by St. Alphonsus' Bookstore, St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, Canada. Originally published by St. Alphonsus' Bookstore and Sands & Co. Publishers, London, in 1940, under the title Saint Alphonsus Mary de' LiguoriFounder, Bishop and Doctor (1696-1787). Republished by TAN Books, by authorization of Redemptorist Provincial Office, St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, Canada.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 87-51079

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2012

"I will teach the unjust the ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee."

Psalm 50:15

St. Alphonsus Mary de' Liguori
Bishop, Confessor, Founder of the Redemptorists
and Doctor of the Church
16961787

FOREWORD

There are many reasons why it is appropriate that a new English life of St. Alphonsus de' Liguori should be made available to the modern world. The standard English life of this great saint, up to the present time, has been Father Castle's splendid translation of Father Berthe's voluminous French life, which is now out of print, though it will always remain a precious possession of those libraries that have copies. However, even that life has been found too bulky by much of the reading public, while other English accounts of St. Alphonsus have failed on the score of being too short and incomplete. The present work has aimed at being thorough, yet popular; complete from a biographical point of view, yet alive and pointed as a story.

Moreover, since the publication of other lives of St. Alphonsus, new documents have been made available, concerning, especially, the early career of the founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. These documents have been used advantageously in the present work.

Of all the Doctors of the Church, none has more to offer the modern world, with its atheism and materialism, its secularism and anti-clericalism, its coldness and indifference towards religion, than St. Alphonsus. He grappled with the deists and atheists of France; he accomplished his work for souls in the face of the most violent opposition from a dictatorial state; he dedicated his life to the overthrow of Jansenism, which, by taking love out of religion, took religion out of the hearts of the people. He used every known means of restoring true religion to the world preaching and catechizing, founding Congregations of both men and women, ruling a diocese, and writing more than a hundred books. Of his books, Pope Pius VII said that any opinion expressed therein could be followed by the faithful without fear of error; he even went so far as to say that it would be wrong for anyone to apply a note of censure to any of the writings of the saint.

As a Doctor of the Church, therefore, St. Alphonsus is a source of instruction to all; as a man and a saint, he is a constant inspiration. In him the love of God and the indefatigable exercise of all his powers in the service of that love during the ninety-one years of his life unite to constitute a glowing example of sainthood for modern times.

For these reasons, we earnestly recommend this life to all who are seeking inspiration for their own lives, and to all who would learn how a saint set about saving souls and regenerating society in times as troubled and, in many ways, as chaotic as our own.

Very Reverend THOMAS M. PALMER, C. SS. R.,

Provincial, St. Louis Province.

February 25, 1940.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

EARLY YEARS (1696-1723)

CHAPTER I

BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD

(1696-1708)

This is the story of one of the fullest and most active lives that the annals of the saints unfold. It might be said that a man who lived to the age of ninety-one would have time for many and various activities, could easily be the originator of numerous projects, and could live to see them through. Yet when the mere outline of the life of Alphonsus Mary de' Liguori is told, it will be seen to be a tale of indefatigable energy, of almost superhuman industry, and of many-sided ability to turn every trend of human events into the service of God.

Alphonsus was by birth a Neapolitan nobleman. He was to be a leader in an age that worshipped earthly rank and prestige, and though he would renounce all such dignities for the simple title of servant of God, Providence gave him a background of glorious ancestry that would always enhance the value of his work. Traces of the family of Liguori are found as far back as the year 1190, when Marco Liguori was the governor of Naples. The family of the mother of Alphonsus was no less ancient and honorable. Her father was a councillor of the Royal Court of Naples and, better still, reputed as a saint. He had three brothers in the religious life, one of them becoming the saintly Bishop Cavalieri. One of his daughters entered the convent and was for many years a superior. But the lustre of the family name was to receive its greatest brilliance through the grandson of the Councillor of the Royal Court, St. Alphonsus Mary de' Liguori.

Alphonsus, the first of eight children, was born on September 27, 1696, at the country house of the Liguori family in Marianella, two and one-half miles north of Naples. His father was Don Joseph Liguori, a distinguished nobleman and captain of one of the royal galleys. His mother was Donna Anna Cavalieri, a refined, deeply spiritual woman, revered by all who knew her. The exact date and even the hour of his birth, with the long list of names he was given, is recorded in the entry of his baptism in the Church of Our Lady of the Virgins in Naples.

The 29th day of September, 1696.

Alfonso Maria, Antonio, Giovanni, Francesco, Cosimo, Damiano, Michelangelo, Gasparo de Liguori, son of Signor Don Giuseppe de Liguori and of Signora Donna Anna Cavalieri, married, was baptized by me, Giuseppe del Mastro, parish priest, and was sponsored by Gratia Porpora, having been born on the twenty-seventh of the said month at thirteen o'clock. (i. e., seven o'clock in the morning.)

Added to the record are the simple statements of the subsequent events of his great career: "Ordained priest, 1726. Consecrated Bishop, 1762. Died, 1787. Canonized, 1839. Doctor of the Church, 1871." True greatness could not be less simply and yet eloquently expressed.

Marianella, the town of his birth, has not forgotten Alphonsus. A marble slab has been erected at the very entrance to the town, bearing an image of him and informing the visitor that, "Here you will find the house in which Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori was born." In August, 1923, a bronze statue of the saint was unveiled in the public square, to which many prominent churchmen, including Cardinals Mercier and Van Rossum, had contributed. The house in which Alphonsus was born still stands. Appropriately it now shelters a community of Redemptorist Fathers.