Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians| August 1

Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians| August 1   St. Alphonsus de Liguori, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer or the Redemptorists.He was endowed with a well-rounded talents so much so that he was also a composer, musician, artist, poet, writer, lawyer, philosopher and theologian. St. Alphonsus was born, eldest of seven children, in Marianella, near Naples, Italy, of a noble lineage on September 27, 1696. His father sent him to study as a lawyer. Before entering the university he was taught by tutors. At 16, he graduated from the University of Naples with doctorates in civil and canon law. When he was 18, he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy to assist in caring for the sick at the hospital. Meanwhile, he was also practicing law, which according to him was full of difficulties. After eight years of practice, losing for the first time an important case at age 27, he resolved to leave the legal profession. That was when he heard a voice saying: “Leave the world and give yourself to me.” Soon, he decided to become a priest and entered as a novice at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, but his father allowed him as long as he would not become an Oratorian. He was ordained on December 21, 1726 at the age 30. He spent his first years as a priest with the homeless and marginalized youth of Naples. He became very popular due to his simple and down-to-earth preaching. He was heard saying: “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand.” That was why his sermons were very effective and they converted many who had gone away from the faith. He founded centers of prayer, preaching, community social activities and education for the youth. They called them Evening Chapels. There were thousands active members and participants. In 1729 Alphonsus left his family home and resided in the Chinese Institute in Naples and began missionary work in the interior regions of Naples. There, he found people who were much poorer and much more abandoned than those in his first missionary territory. In 1731, while ministering to earthquake victims in Foggia, Italy Alphonsus said he had a vision of the Virgin Mary who appeared as a girl of 14. This vision and his scruples about sin, led to a greater intimacy with God and an ardent desire to serve Him unreservedly. Thus, on November 9, 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. The charism of the congregation is to preach in the cities and the countryside, in the slums and other poor places. Besides preaching, the members of the newly founded congregation fought against Jansenism, the heresy that preached a very excessive and strict morality which did not consider forgiveness. The Redemptorists rightly believed that: “penitents must be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished.” The Redemptorists specialized in hearing Confession. In 1766, St. Alphonsus founded also the Redemptoristine nuns in St. Agatha. When St. Alphonsus was already sickly, he resigned his post as Bishop and he continued to live with the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy where he died. St. Alphonsus was beatified on September 15, 1816 by Pope Pius VII. He was canonized on May 26, 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI. He was named “Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians” by Pope Piuys XII on April 26, 1950. His voluminous writings are still extant today and a famous Christmas song in Italian is still among the favorites: “Tu scendi dalle stelle” (From starry skies descending). In 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of moral theology. St. Alphonsus is a Doctor of the Church and his greatest contribution were his writings on moral theology. The devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help was begun by his followers in 1923.