Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787), bishop, founder of the Redemptorist Congregation. The son of a Neapolitan noble, he studied law and practised jurisprudence with considerable success. But his conversion to clerical life is said to have been due to his losing a case through confusing Lombard with Angevin law. He studied theology privately, was ordained priest (1726), and became famous as a preacher in and near Naples.

In 1731 he refounded a community of nuns in accordance with a revelation which he declared authentic; in 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer for priests dedicated to preaching to the rural poor. This was handicapped early on by internal dissensions and later by rivalry between Church and State. Alphonsus himself was excluded from it, it is said, because he signed an important document without reading it. After his death it prospered, especially in Central Europe, and later still in England, Ireland, and the United States.

In 1745 he published the first of his thirty-six theological and devotional works. Although the former are sometimes criticized for being too legalistic and the latter for being too exuberant, the influence of both was considerable. His most important work was the Moral Theology. This counteracted both rigorism and laxism by advocating that it is lawful to follow the milder of two equally probable opinions about the morality of particular actions. As in his spiritual direction, so in his preaching, he aimed at simplicity, gentleness, and intelligibility. In trying to be understood by all, he made considerable use of rhetoric, notably in his often-criticized Glories of Mary (1750). Similar techniques were used by his followers, whose preaching often appealed to the fear of God, and of the Day of Judgement.

Alphonsus was consecrated bishop of Sant' Agatha dei Goti (Beneventum) in 1762, but he resigned his see through ill-health in 1775. He lived for another twelve years, his last ones being saddened by divisions in his Order and by various interior afflictions. He was canonized in 1839 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871. Feast: 1 (formerly 2) August.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• A. C. Berthe, Life of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Eng. tr. 1905); R. Telleria, San Alfonso Maria de Ligorio (1950–1); Opere Ascetiche (1933–60); see also P. Pourrat, La Spiritualité Chrétienne, iv (1947), 449–91; F. M. Jones, Alphonsus of Liguori; the Saint of Bourbon Naples (1992). Here too has recently been compiled a CD–ROM of texts and images to illustrate his life and teaching. There are 68 hymns, 1823 letters and a bibliography of 3000 items