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. [7] At 27, after having lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practising law, he made a firm resolution to leave the profession of law. In the end the Rule was so altered as to be hardly recognizable, the very vows of religion being abolished. R. When the Saint began to hear confessions, however, he soon saw the harm done by rigorism, and for the rest of his life he inclined more to the mild school of the Jesuit theologians, whom he calls "the masters of morals". 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. St. Alphonsus Liguori. 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." Both last about two hours but are filled with soul-stirring music. 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). Unable to be idle, he had preached to the goatherds of the mountains with such success that Nicolas Guerriero, Bishop of Scala, begged him to return and give a retreat in his cathedral. After a short interval--we do not know exactly how long--the answer came. 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. So many times I have sinned, but I repent sincerely because I love you. His intercession healed the sick; he read the secrets of hearts, and foretold the future. In December, 1724, he received minor orders, and the subdiaconate in September, 1725. Don Joseph de' Liguori had his faults. Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. With Don Carlos, or as he is generally called, Charles III, from his later title as King of Spain, came the lawyer, Bernard Tanucci, who governed Naples as Prime Minister and regent for the next forty-two years. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. 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. 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. 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. He was the eldest of seven children of Giuseppe Liguori, a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, and Anna Maria Caterina Cavalieri. For six years he laboured in and around Naples, giving missions for the Propaganda and preaching to the lazzaroni of the capital. Daily Reading for Sunday, March 5th, 2023, Continue reading about St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori, Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting: The Three Pillars of Lent. (27 September 1696 - 1 August 1787), was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. "You have founded the Congregation and you have destroyed it", said one Father to him. He refused to become the bishop of Palermo but in 1762 had to accept the papal command to accept the see of St. Agatha of the Goths near Naples. Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. 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. 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! 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. The Saint's own letters are of extreme value in supplementing Tannoia. 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. The German life, DILGSKRON, Leben des heiligen Bischofs und Kirchenlehrers, Alfonsus Maria de Liguori (New York, 1887), is scholarly and accurate. Nine editions of the "Moral Theology" appeared in the Saint's life-time, those of 1748, 1753-1755, 1757, 1760, 1763, 1767, 1773, 1779, and 1785, the "Annotations to Busembaum" counting as the first. His promotion to the episcopate in 1762 led to a renewal of his missionary activity, but in a slightly different form. In the end a compromise was arrived at. There are many editions of the Saint's Moral Theology; the best and latest is that of P. GAUDI, C.SS.R. The crisis arose in this way. The question as to what does or does not constitute a lie is not an easy one, but it is a subject in itself. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). To prevent the ship going to pieces on the rocks, it has need of a very responsive rudder, answering to the slightest pressure of Divine guidance. "St. Alphonsus Liguori." He answered emphatically: "Never! . Believe me who have experienced it, and now weep over it." In a civil action a serious preponderance of evidence gives one side the case. Other personal friends of Alphonsus were the Jesuit Fathers de Matteis, Zaccaria, and Nonnotte. Very few remarks upon his own times occur in the Saint's letters. [4] When he was 18, like many other nobles, he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy, with whom he assisted in the care of the sick at the hospital for "incurables". said Alphonsus somewhat piqued. He is credited with the position of Aequiprobabilism, which avoided Jansenist rigorism as well as laxism and simple probabilism. ); JOHNSTON, The Napoleonic Empire in South Italy, 2 vols. 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. He knew that trials were before him. Even its Rule was made known to her. In April 1729, the Apostle of China, Matthew Ripa, founded a missionary college in Naples, which became known colloquially as the "Chinese College". 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. and reportedly performed miracles. 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. The chapels were centres of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities, and education. 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. 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. That legacy is the participation in the redemptive mission of Jesus. 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. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul T. Crowley. In 1871, Alphonsus was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX. He did not, as in the past, ask for an exequatur to the Brief of Benedict XIV, for relations at the time were more strained than ever between the Courts of Rome and Naples; but he hoped the king might give an independent sanction to his Rule, provided he waived all legal right to hold property in common, which he was quite prepared to do. Alphonsus, assisted by divine grace, did not disappoint his father's care. 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. If in some things Alphonsus was an Anglo-Saxon, in others he was a Neapolitan of the Neapolitans, though always a saint. In 1724, soon after Alphonsus left the world, a postulant, Julia Crostarosa, born in Naples on 31 October, 1696, and hence almost the same age as the Saint, entered the convent of Scala. He had a love for the lower animals, and wild creatures who fled from all else would come to him as to a friend. where the Hosts were buried. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. He was now free, subject to the approval of the Bishop of Scala, to act with regard to the convent as he thought best. He who ruled and directed others so wisely, had, where his own soul was concerned, to depend on obedience like a little child. In 1871 he was named a doctor of the church by Pope Pius IX. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. Courts, you shall never see me more." It is not necessary to notice certain non-Catholic attacks on Alphonsus as a patron of lying. Shop St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori. 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. 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. A respected opponent was the redoubtable Dominican controversialist, P. Vincenzo Patuzzi, while to make up for hard blows we have another Dominican, P. Caputo, President of Alphonsus's seminary and a devoted helper in his work of reform. The Decree of 1779, however, seemed a great step in advance. 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. 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. But one may easily overcrowd a narrow canvas and it is better in so slight a sketch to leave the central figure in solitary relief. Office Hours: Mon - Fri: 8am-4pm, Saturday: 9am-12pm . His system of moral theology is noted for its prudence, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigour. 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. He was not allowed to resign his see, however, until 1775. [2] Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me."[5]. [16] The 21,500 editions and the translations into 72 languages that his works have undergone attest to the fact that he is one of the most widely-read Catholic authors. 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. St. Paul of the Cross (1694-1775) and St. Alphonsus, who were altogether contemporaries, seem never to have met on earth, though the founder of the Passionists was a great friend of Alphonsus's uncle, Mgr. Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, C.Ss.R. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the tradition of praying the stations of the cross began to develop. Both of them were canonized on the same day as the Holy Doctor, 26 May, 1839. Let's start with the saint. Vague rumours of impending treachery had got about and had been made known to him, but he had refused to believe them. Then the storm subsided, and he began to see that his humiliation had been sent him by God to break down his pride and wean him from the world. In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti. Alphonsus, like so many saints, had an excellent father and a saintly mother. Alphonsus Mary Antony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de' Liguori was born in his father's country house at Marianella near Naples, on Tuesday, 27 September, 1696. Filangieri forbade any change of rule and removed Falcoia from all communication with the convent. The family was of noble lineage, but the branch to which Liguori belonged had become somewhat impoverished. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. He had nearly completed his ninety-first year. St. Alphonsus encouraged an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ through frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament. In theology Liguori is known as the principal exponent of equiprobabilism, a system of principles designed to guide the conscience of one in doubt as to whether he or she is free from or bound by a given civil or religious law. 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. He remained thunderstruck for a moment; then said in a broken voice: "You are right. Falcoia, hearing of this, begged his friend to give a retreat to the nuns of his Conservatorium at the same time. 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. He was baptized two days later in the church of Our Lady of the Virgins, in Naples. In the minutes it was In old age he was more than once raised in the air when speaking of God. Transcription. About three years before his death he went through a veritable "Night of the Soul". 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. There was a considerable difference in age between the two men, for Falcoia, born in 1663, was now sixty-six, and Alphonsus only thirty-three, but the old priest and the young had kindred souls. 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.
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