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In response, Alphonsus dedicated himself to the religious life, even while suffering persecution from his family. On 28 August, 1723, the young advocate had gone to perform a favourite act of charity by visiting the sick in the Hospital for Incurables. It saw only recently its first publication in translation, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant and published in 2017 by Mediatrix Press. His masterpiece was The Moral Theology (1748), which was approved by the Pope himself[5] and was born of Liguori's pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems. But, before relating the episode of the "Regolamento", as it is called, we must speak of the period of the Saint's episcopate which intervened. To this altered Rule or "Regolamento", as it came to be called, the unsuspecting Saint was induced to put his signature. 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. Though a good dogmatic theologian--a fact which has not been sufficiently recognized--he was not a metaphysician like the great scholastics. They also fought Jansenism, a heresy that preached an excessive moral rigorism: "the penitents should be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished". Much of the material for a complete life of St. Alphonsus is still in manuscript in the Roman archives of the Redemptorist Congregation and in the archives of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. The impulse to this passionate service of God comes from Divine grace, but the soul must correspond (which is also a grace of God), and the soul of strong will and strong passions corresponds best. When we cannot make it to daily Mass, however, we can still make an Act of Spiritual Communion. 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. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01334a.htm. 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. Unfortunately, he was not obliged by his confessor, in virtue of holy obedience, as St. Teresa was, to write down his states of prayer; so we do not know precisely what they were. Cavalieri, himself a great servant of God. In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or the Redemptorists, at Scala. In April 1729, Alphonsus went to live at the "Chiflese College," founded in Naples by Father Matthew Ripa, the Apostle of China. In the eight years of his career as advocate, years crowded with work, he is said never to have lost a case. Shop St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori. In the end the Rule was so altered as to be hardly recognizable, the very vows of religion being abolished. A companion, Balthasar Cito, who afterwards became a distinguished judge, was asked in later years if Alphonsus had ever shown signs of levity in his youth. 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. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, and he spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. 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. In a civil action a serious preponderance of evidence gives one side the case. [2] Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me."[5]. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a mysterious light; the house seemed to rock, and an interior voice said: "Leave the world and give thyself to Me." Visiting the local Hospital for Incurables on August 28, 1723, he had a vision and was told to consecrate his life solely to God. Riding and fencing were his recreations, and an evening game of cards; he tells us that he was debarred from being a good shot by his bad sight. 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." Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Here he discovered more than thirty thousand uninstructed men and women and four hundred indifferent priests. He was crushed to the earth. Perhaps in any case the submission of their Rule to a suspicious and even hostile civil power was a mistake. He had a pleasant smile, and his conversation was very agreeable, yet he had great dignity of manner. 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. His infirmities were increasing, and he was occupied a good deal with his writings. By 1777, the Saint, in addition to four houses in Naples and one in Sicily, had four others at Scifelli, Frosinone, St. Angelo a Cupolo, and Beneventum, in the States of the Church. It will be remembered that even as a young man his chief distress at his breakdown in court was the fear that his mistake might be ascribed to deceit. [4], Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. In this state of exclusion he lived for seven years more and in it he died. 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. Moral Theology (also known as the Theologia Moralis) is a nine-volume work concerning Catholic moral theology written between 1748 and 1785 by Alphonsus Liguori, a Catholic theologian and Doctor of the Church.This work is not to be confused with Theologia moralis universa ad mentem S. Alphonsi, a 19th-century treatise by Pietro Scavini written in the philosophical tradition of Alphonsus Liguori. In 1719, together with a Father Filangieri, also one of the "Pii Operarii", he had refounded a Conservatorium of religious women at Scala on the mountains behind Amalfi. 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. He was now free, subject to the approval of the Bishop of Scala, to act with regard to the convent as he thought best. Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. Alphonsus agreed to both requests and set out with his two friends, John Mazzini and Vincent Mannarini, in September, 1730. . [5], By May 1775, Alphonus was "deaf, blind, and laden with so many infirmities, that he has no longer even the appearance of a man", and his resignation was accepted by the recently crowned Pope Pius VI. Very few remarks upon his own times occur in the Saint's letters. 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. This lifelong friendship aided Alphonsus, as did his association with a mystic, Sister Mary Celeste. She became known in religion as Sister Maria Celeste. He was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871. Stay up to date with the latest news, information, and special offers. He is the patron of confessors, moral theologians, and the lay apostolate. He called his system Equiprobabilism. If any reader of this article will go to original sources and study the Saint's life at greater length, he will not find his labour thrown away. He was also a poet and musician. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. By AClarke625. He was the eldest of seven children and the hope of his house. After 1752 Alphonsus gave fewer missions. Printable Catholic Saints PDFs Patron saint of: people with arthritis, lawyers, vocations. About three years before his death he went through a veritable "Night of the Soul". In April 1729, the Apostle of China, Matthew Ripa, founded a missionary college in Naples, which became known colloquially as the "Chinese College". They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. Deposed and excluded from his own congregation, Alphonsus suffered great anguish. He finally agreed to become a priest but to live at home as a member of a group of secular missionaries. 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. Updates? In 1723, he decided to offer himself as a novice to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri with the intention of becoming a priest. He was declared "Venerable", 4 May, 1796; was beatified in 1816, and canonized in 1839. On 6 April, 1726, he was ordained deacon, and soon after preached his first sermon. 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. 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. They followed this gifted preacher from church to church and town to town to hear him give a message of hope in Christ for all people. . He had nearly completed his ninety-first year. His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady was extraordinary. On 1 April, 1733, all the companions of Alphonsus except one lay brother, Vitus Curtius, abandoned him, and founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, which, confined to the Kingdom of Naples, was extinguished in 1860 by the Italian Revolution. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). 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. Vol. [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. at last came peace, and on 1 August, 1787, as the midday Angelus was ringing, the Saint passed peacefully to his reward. [5] 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. [8] 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". March 1, 1907. He was somewhat worldly and ambitious, at any rate for his son, and was rough tempered when opposed. The Holy Mass, Eugene Grimm ed., Benziger Brothers, New York, 1887, Liguori, Alphonsus. The Saint's own letters are of extreme value in supplementing Tannoia. If in some things Alphonsus was an Anglo-Saxon, in others he was a Neapolitan of the Neapolitans, though always a saint. Could he have been what an Anglo-Saxon would consider a miracle of calm, he would have seemed to his companions absolutely inhuman. In fact, in the beginning, the young priest in his humility would not be Superior even of the house, judging one of his companions, John Baptist Donato, better fitted for the post because he had already had some experience of community life in another institute. Falcoia, hearing of this, begged his friend to give a retreat to the nuns of his Conservatorium at the same time. In addition, he published many editions of compendiums of his larger work, such as the "Homo Apostolicus", made in 1759. In 1731, the convent unanimously adopted the new Rule, together with a habit of red and blue, the traditional colours of Our Lord's own dress. Ever mindful of his own sins, Saint Alphonsus saw prayer for the faithful departed as one of the chief duties of Christian charity. Omissions? 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. 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.