Alphonsus Liguori

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. ==Education==

Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. 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 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. Moreover, he subsequently reported hearing an "interior voice" saying: "Leave the world, and give yourself to me." ==Calling to the Priesthood==

In 1723, he decided to offer himself as a novice to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri with the intention of becoming a priest. His father opposed the plan, but after two months (and with his Oratorian confessor's permission), he and his father compromised: he would study for the priesthood, but not as an Oratorian, and would live at home. 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. It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples, where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples. In 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, Alphonsus said he had a vision of the Virgin Mother in the appearance of a young girl of 13 or 14, wearing a white veil. ==Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer==

. 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. He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. He wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. 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 finally accepted by the recently crowned Pope Pius VI. He continued to live with the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy, where he died on 1 August 1787. His remains are now in display in the parochial church in Pagani. ==Veneration and legacy==

He was beatified on 15 September 1816 by Pope Pius VII and canonised on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI. 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 by Pope Pius XII on 26 April 1950, 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 but was due to the 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. 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==