Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (27 September 1696 – 1 August 1787) was an Italian Catholic bishop and saint, as well as a spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in November 1732.

In 1762, he was appointed Bishop of Sant'Agata de' Goti. A prolific writer, he published nine editions of his Moral Theology in his lifetime, in addition to other devotional and ascetic works and letters. Among his best known works are The Glories of Mary and The Way of the Cross, the latter still used in parishes during Lenten devotions. He is also associated with the manualist tradition of moral theology and seminary education, which was highly influential in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was canonised in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871. A frequently cited Catholic author, he is the patron saint of confessors.

Early years

He was born in Marianella, near Naples, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, on 27 September 1696. He was the eldest of seven children of Giuseppe Liguori, a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, and Anna Maria Caterina Cavalieri. Two days after he was born, he was baptised at the Church of Our Lady the Virgin as Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de' Liguori. The family was of noble lineage, but the branch to which Liguori belonged had become somewhat impoverished. Myopia and chronic asthma precluded a military career, so his father had him educated in the legal profession. He was taught by tutors before entering the University of Naples, where he graduated with a doctorate in civil and canon law at 16. He remarked later that he was so small at the time that he was almost buried in his doctor's gown and that all the spectators laughed.

He became a successful lawyer. He was thinking of leaving the profession and wrote to someone, "My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death." At 27, after losing 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. Moreover, he subsequently reported hearing an "interior voice" saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me." Moreover, Liguori viewed scruples as a blessing at times and wrote: "Scruples are useful in the beginning of conversion... they cleanse the soul, and at the same time make it careful".

In 1729, Liguori left his family home and took up residence at the Chinese Institute in Naples. when Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa told him that it had been revealed to her that he was the one that God had chosen to found the congregation. He founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. The congregation also strongly opposed the development of Jansenism, a theological movement that to Alphonsus seem to exhibit excessive moral rigorism: "the penitents should be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished". He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent himself.

Bishop of Sant' Agata de Goti and final years

Liguori was consecrated Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762.

In 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. He was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians on 26 April 1950 by Pope Pius XII, who subsequently wrote of him in the encyclical Haurietis aquas.

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." The church did not bestow this unique privilege lightly; it was due to his extraordinary combination of exceptional knowledge and understanding of church teachings combined with the great precision in which he wrote.

Works

Overview

Liguori was a prolific and popular author.</blockquote>

Moral theology

Liguori's greatest contribution to the Catholic Church was in the area of moral theology. His masterpiece was The Moral Theology (1748), which was approved by the Pope himself

Dogmatic Works

  • Moral Theology (4 volume set originally written in Latin)
  • The Triumph of the Church over all Heresies. A History of Heresies and Their Refutation
  • Truth of the Faith ("Verità della Fede", there is no known English translation of this book from the Italian/Latin)
  • On The Council of Trent

Mariology

His Mariology, though mainly pastoral in nature, rediscovered, integrated and defended that of Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose of Milan and other Church Fathers; it represented an intellectual defence of Mariology in the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, against the rationalism to which contrasted his fervent Marian devotion.

  • The Glories of Mary
  • Marian Devotion
  • Prayers to the Divine Mother
  • Spiritual Songs
  • The True Spouse of Jesus Christ (original: La Vera Sposa di Gesù Cristo, cioè la Monaca Santa per Mezzo delle Virtù proprie d’una Religiosa (first edition: 1760–1761))

Other Ascetical works

  • Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection
  • The Way of Salvation and of Perfection
  • The Stations of the Cross
  • Preparation for Death
  • The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ
  • The Holy Eucharist
  • Uniformity with God's Will (pamphlet)
  • Victories of the Martyrs
  • Sermons for all the Sundays in the Year

See also

  • Index of Catholic Church articles
  • Mental prayer
  • St. Alphonsus 'Rock' Liguori Church (St. Louis)
  • Teresa of Ávila

References

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  • Saints Books, E-Book Library of the Works of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.
  • Founder Statue in St Peter's Basilica.
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  • Liguori, Alphonsus. The Holy Mass, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887.
  • Liguori, Alphonsus. Preaching, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887.
  • Liguori, Alphonsus. Dignity and Duties of the Priest, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1889.
  • Free scores by Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki).
  • "Tu scendi dalle stele", Pavaroti.
  • "St Alphonsus", St. Alphonsus on Catholic Online.