St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, Doctor of the Church August 2 1696-1787 Born on September 21 at Marianelli near Naples, Italy, the son of a captain of the royal galleys, he received his doctorate in both canon and civil law at the University of Naples when only sixteen and practiced law very successfully for the next eight years. He abandoned the practice of law when through an oversight he lost an important case, decided to become a priest, joined the Oratorians, and was ordained in 1726. He served as a missionary around Naples for two years, taught for a year, and in 1730, at the invitation of Bishop Thomas Falcoia, whom he had met while teaching, he went to Castellamare. During a nuns' retreat he was conducting at Scala, he met Sister Mary Celeste and became convinced that her vision of a new religious order, which coincided with a vision Bishop Falcoia had experienced earlier in Rome, was genuine, and reorganized her convent according to the rule she had been given in the vision in 1731, thus founding the Redemptorines. He moved to Scala and n 1732 organized the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer [the Redemporists], devoted to mission work, and using a hospice of the nuns at Scala for headquarters, with Bishop Falcoia as nominal superior. Dissension broke out almost immediately; Sister Mary Celeste left and founded a convent at Foggia, and in 1733 all the members of Alphonsus' group except one lay brother left to found their own congregation. New postulants were recruited, and in 1734 a second foundation was made at Villa degli Schiavi, and Alphonsus went there to live. In 1738 Scala had to be abandoned after Villa degli Schiavi had been closed the previous year. Despite all the difficulties, the congregation grew, and in 1743, on the death of Bishop Falcoia, a general council elected Alphonsus superior; Pope Benedict XIV approved the rule of the men in 1749 and of the women the following year. During this time Alphonsus was personally active in preaching missions in rural areas and small villages but was increasingly devoting himself to writing. He refused an appointment to the see of Palermo but in 1762 was obliged to accept appointment as bishop of Sant' Agata dei Goti. He inaugurated a program designed to reform the clergy, monasteries, and the entire diocese, and worked to alleviate the condition of the poor and the ignorant. Ill and inflicted with rheumatism that left him paralyzed until his death, he resigned his see in 1775 and retired to Nocera. Meanwhile, during this entire period, he had been engaged in running disputes with the anticlerical Marquis Bernard Tanucci, who governed Naples, 1734-76, as Prime Minister of Charles III of Spain, who had conquered Naples in 1734. Tanucci refused to grant royal approval for the Redemptorists and constantly threatened to suppress Alphonsus' congregation as disguised Jesuits (the Jesuits had been expelled from Spanish domains in 1767). In 1780, with a new governor in power, Alphonsus was tricked into signing and submitting for royal approval a new rule that completely altered his own rule, which had been papally approved in 1750; when this fraudulent role was approved by the King at Naples, a storm burst around Alphonsus. Pope Pius VI refused to accept the new rule, recognized the Redemptorists in the Papal States as the true Redemptorists, and a new superior was appointed to replace Alphonsus. For the last few years of his life, in addition to his ill health, he experienced deep spiritual depression and he went through a "dark night of the soul." But this period was replaced by a time of peace and light when he experienced visions, ecstasies, made prophecies that were later fulfilled, and reportedly performed miracles. He died on August 1 at Nocera. Alphonsus wrote profusely on moral, theological, and ascetical subjects [notably his Moral Theology], was constantly engaged in combating anticlericalism and Jansenism, and was involved in several controversies over probabilism. His devotional writings were most successful, especially his Glories of Mary. He was canonized in 1839 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871 by Pope Pius IX.  Some of his works can be found on line at Catholic Tradition. See Catholic Classics and Authors' Index. He is the patron of those with arthritis. HOME

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