As a boy, Alphonsus made a retreat each year in company with his father in some religious house. Being extraordinarily gifted and brilliant, he was awarded a doctorate in law at the age of 16, and rapidly achieved success. But he gave up his profession at 27, and sought to discover God's will in prayer and works of charity. Joining the 'Neopolitan Propaganda*, he aided these Priests w were giving vivid and inspiring missions among the poor of the poor, and was himself ordained. The most Perfect charity consists in being zealous about our neighbor’s spiritual good!'
In 1732 St Alphonsus founded the 'Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer' (the Redemptorists), and for 20 years travelled about the province of Naples (Italy), giving missions in every town and hamlet, and among the neglected goat-herds in the mountains, then returning again a few months later to consolidate his numerous conversions in what he termed a 'Renewal of the Mission'.
After 1752 he devoted himself steadily to writing. His great work on 'Moral Theology' holds to the golden mean between the excessively lenient and the exaggeratedly rigorous schools of thought, The Prince of Moral Theologians' had a remarkable devotion to our Lady and the Blessed Sacrament, and this spurred him to compose the many dogmatic and ascetical works for which he is famed. Of these. The Glories of Mary', The Way of Salvation' and The True Spouse of Christ' are perhaps the best known. They abound in practical and commonsense suggestions. St Alphonsus was particularly in favour of short, affective petitions and acts of love, for 'he who prays is saved; he who does not pray is damned.' Altogether, 111 books and treatises are from his pen, and have seen 4,000 editions in over 60 languages!
In 1762 St Alphonsus was made Bishop of St Agata del Goti, a small Neopolitan diocese, and here he laboured with great zeal and selflessness for 13 years, reforming the seminary and monasteries, instructing the laity, and succouring the poor. Nor did he hesitate to banish men and women of the nobility who were notorious for their evil lives. 'He who wishes to enjoy all permissible pleasures will soon take those which are forbidden!' The holy Bishop could read people's hearts, heal the sick through his prayers, and foretell the future.
Weakened by severe austerities and the unbelievable scope and intensity of his pastoral work, St Alphonsus fell victim to a severe attack of gout and rheumatic fever which left him partially paralysed to the day of his death. Not until 1755, however, did the Pope relieve him of his episcopal duties at his requests - he was then 79 - and during the remaining 12 years of his life he gradually became deaf, partially blind, and had to be fed through a tube. However 'many things seem to us misfortunes. If we only know why God permits them, we would see clearly that they are in reality graces.' 'Contradictions, sickness scruples, spiritual dryness, and interior or exterior torments are but the chisel which God uses to carve His statues for paradise.'
St Alphonsus died on July 18, 1787. He was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI on May 26, 1839 and was declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX on March 23, 1871.
St Alphonsus is the patron of confessors and teachers of moral theology
For further information; Visit:
www.newadvent.org/cathen/01334a.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonsus_Liguori
saints.sqpn.com/sainta09.htm
www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1284