St. Alphonsus Liguori

Doctor of the Church

Rev. Fr. D. F. Miller

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1940
• ISBN:
  9781505103748
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Denominazioni cristiane

Bishop, Confessor, Founder of the Redemptorists, Doctor of the Church, author of 111 books, the most published author in history. The Catholic world stands in the shadow of this brilliant man who read everything significant written in the history of the Church. His incredible life; miracles and achievements. St. Alphonsus says, "He who prays will be saved; he who does not will be lost." A most inspiring life! 392 pgs;

BOOK II

PRIEST AND FOUNDER (1724-1762)

CHAPTER I

FIRST MISSIONARY ACTIVITY

(1724-1730)

Alphonsus received the tonsure on Saturday, September 23, 1724, and minor orders on Saturday, December 23, of the same year.

With the reception of tonsure he felt that the last break had been made with the world, and he began to think of preparing himself for an active ministry after his ordination to the priesthood. His eyes turned almost at once to the Congregation of Apostolic Missions, also called the Neapolitan Propaganda, which had been founded seventy years before, primarily for the establishment of foreign missions, but also for the conducting of missions at home. As a matter of fact, the Congregation had as yet sent no missionaries abroad, because the demands made on its services at home had been such as to give full rein to the zeal of all its members.

Alphonsus turned to this Congregation, first, because its aim was missionary work, and he longed to be an apostle; and secondly, because its members had a high reputation for sanctity and included some of those to whom he was most indebted for help through the struggling years of his preparation for ordination. Therefore, shortly after he had received the tonsure, he made application for membership, was accepted, and on November 13, 1724, began his novitiate. Not content with this, he enlisted also as a member of the "Bianchi" or "White Fathers," in April, 1725, a group of priests in Naples who had dedicated themselves to the work of bringing spiritual aid to condemned prisoners, and who received their name from the white mantle they had agreed upon wearing whenever they visited the prisoners. In his later life he was to write a treatise on the spiritual care of prisoners, based largely on the valuable experience he had gained with the "Bianchi." In this way he was already gratifying his zealous desire to work for abandoned souls.

The year of his novitiate passed rapidly, filled as it was with spiritual exercises, final preparations for the duties of the priesthood, and little services he was called upon to render to the Fathers of the Neapolitan Propaganda both at home and sometimes when they went out on missions.

He had his first taste of actual missionary labor during this year preceding his ordination to the priesthood. In June, 1725, he was sent as catechist with the other missionaries to the island of Procida, situated off the coast of Italy near Naples. He was so immediately successful in his work of catechizing and bringing sinners to repentance, that he was sent out frequently after that, and, much to his discomfiture, even acquired a reputation that sometimes preceded him to the places to which he was sent to preach. How singular that reputation must have been was attested at the process of his beatification seventy-five years later, when an aged woman who had heard him as a child could still recall that "the men had a high opinion of him, and my father spoke of him as a man far advanced in divine things." It is also related of these early missionary days that while he was at Caserta, the bishop of the place, who had known his reputation as a lawyer, heard of his being among the missionaries and wanted to meet him. He came to the church where the mission was being conducted one day, and saw one of the missionaries kneeling before the altar of Our Lady. He approached him and asked which of the band was Alphonsus de' Liguori. The young man answered: "I am the poor sinner for whom this Lady has obtained the grace of a vocation."

Meanwhile, on September 22, 1725, he was ordained subdeacon, and joyously confirmed and solemnized the vow of chastity he had made over two years before. Then on October 1 of that year he was professed as a member of the Congregation of Apostolic Missions, and permitted to enter more and more into the work of the fathers in the field.

The last step in his progress toward the priesthood was his reception of the order of deacon on the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, April 26, 1726. This marked the opening of a wide field to his zeal, for with the conferring of the diaconate, the archbishop of Naples gave him permission to preach in all the churches of Naples. No doubt intentionally, Alphonsus preached his first sermon before the Blessed Sacrament during a Forty Hours' Adoration, and its topic was the Victim of Love upon the altar. His old and faithful friends had looked forward to the occasion and were on hand to hear him; they found that the man who had been able to sway crowds and win over opponents by his eloquence in the courts, was even more effective as a preacher; for now to his natural eloquence he brought a burning flame of love for God and an overflowing zeal for the souls of his hearers.

That sermon was but the beginning of a busy apostolate of preaching. Word of his power to sway crowds and win souls passed about quickly among the pastors and priests of the archdiocese, and he was constantly in demand. He began to take an active part in the missions conducted by the Propaganda, uniting to his former work of catechizing that of preaching the great sermons.

His work multiplied so much that before he was ordained to the priesthood he broke down and in his weakened state fell into serious illness. The doctors expressed doubts as to whether he would recover, and the last sacraments were administered. Alphonsus himself, however, seemed to be unworried; he was sure that this was only a further means chosen by God to prepare him for the work of his life. He asked that a statue of Our Lady of Ransom, before whom he had laid his sword on the day he made his vow to become a priest, be brought to him, and he addressed fervent words of prayer to the Mother of God. He related later that he immediately felt himself beginning to improve, and though his convalescence lasted three months, his complete recovery was a matter of doubt no longer.

At last came the day of his ordination to the priesthood. It was December 21, 1726, fourteen years after he had taken his degree of Doctor of Civil and Canon Law, three years after he said farewell to the practice of law forever. He prepared for the great day by withdrawing almost entirely from external activity and seemed as one living in another world. He was ordained by Monsignor Dominic Invitti, archbishop of Sardis, and on the following day celebrated his first mass. His real career had begun.

For five years after his ordination to the priesthood, Alphonsus led a life of prodigious missionary activity in and around Naples. One not so well grounded in the principles of true spirituality and zeal, could easily have been spoiled by the honor and esteem that were shown him, and the popularity he attained almost immediately. For example, he had scarcely been ordained when he was commissioned by Cardinal Pignatelli of Naples to preach the annual retreat to the clergy of the city. He was called upon to preach in the largest churches of Naples on feast days of the Blessed Mother and during the Forty Hours' Adoration. He was in great demand as a preacher of retreats to nuns. But all this awakened no vanity in the soul of the young priest, because his only ambition was to be a missionary to poor and abandoned souls.

He gave evidence of this ambition from the very start, by the almost revolutionary manner in which he delivered his sermons. At that time, pulpit oratory had deteriorated into a medium for glorifying the preacher instead of a means of instructing the people. A peculiar style of preaching had become the accepted standard for imitation. It was a style that made use of every artificial trick of rhetoric that had ever been conceived; in particular, the trick of inverted sentences, so that the hearers would not know what the speaker was trying to say until the end of his sentence had been reached; and also the artifice of periodic structure — so well adapted to pompous and bombastic preparations for a climax. It required considerable genius to compose sermons in this artificial way, yet such preaching could be of little value for instructing and moving the people. From the beginning Alphonsus disdained to use such a style in his sermons. He made it his principle that unless his words were clear and inspiring even to the most humble and illiterate members of his audience, he was speaking in vain. He realized that most of the people, even those of the nobility and the educated classes, had little training in philosophy and theology; that learned treatises or fantastic discourses might amaze them and make them look upon the preacher as a great man, but would not induce them to love God and to hate sin. So he preached simply, instructively, clearly — and for oratorical adornment merely allowed his own love of God and desire to save sinners overflow into his words.

The result was a degree of success that the most famous orators of the day had never achieved. Crowds flocked to the churches where he was preaching, and though it was principally the poor and neglected whom he desired to attract, there were not wanting people of higher rank — lawyers, magistrates, writers, wealthy merchants, even priests and religious whose admiration the new simple style of preaching had completely won. One story is told of a famous writer, known as a quick-witted satirist and commentator on the times, who was almost always to be seen in a prominent place in the churches where Alphonsus was speaking. One day Alphonsus met him and said: "I always see you at my sermons. Perhaps you are preparing to write a satire against me." The man answered: "Not at all. When I go to hear you, I know I am not going to have to listen to an artificial style and well-rounded sentences. I go because you forget yourself and preach only Jesus Christ."

It is significant also that his popular style of preaching finally softened the heart of his father and won back his love. Alphonsus was preaching a mission in the church of the Holy Ghost in Naples when Don Joseph passed by. Curiosity got the better of him, and he entered the church to listen to his son. The simple words of Alphonsus went straight to his heart, and with the same impetuosity that had before led him to such lasting bitterness, he sought him out afterwards and said to him: "O my son, how grateful I am to you! You have taught me really to know God. I bless you and thank you a thousand times for embracing a state so holy and pleasing to God."

When not called to preach in the great churches of Naples, or to go out on missions, Alphonsus was devoting his time almost entirely to the neglected and abandoned poor, of whom the city of Naples was full. He would go out on the streets, or into the public market places and squares, and gather beggars and drifters and unkempt tramps about him to speak to them of the things of God. He might even be called the forerunner of the popular movements of street-preaching in our day; for it became a familiar sight to see him standing bareheaded on a street corner, with a motley and ragged crowd of loungers around him listening intently to what he had to say. When he had finished, he would invite his hearers to follow him to a church, where he would instruct them and prepare them for the making of a good confession. It was in this kind of work that he was most happy; he was probably dreaming already of some day, in some way, gathering followers around him, who would consecrate themselves to that work in preference to any other.

On the missions as well as in the churches and on the streets of Naples, Alphonsus set out primarily to win the souls of the poor. In those days it was not customary for newly ordained priests to receive the faculty of hearing confessions at once; and so it was not until a year after his ordination that Alphonsus could enter upon this work of the ministry. But once authorized to forgive sins in the name of Christ, he effected a transformation in the methods of hearing confessions then in vogue like that which he had effected in regard to preaching. Jansenism had long since made its influence felt. Extreme severity in the confessional had become the common thing; confessors were often so harsh with their penitents, so unsympathetic and rigorous, that many sinners were afraid to go to confession; and even good people considered it a burden to be evaded as much as possible. Alphonsus established a new vogue: by kindness and compassion he sought only to awaken sorrow in the heart of the sinner. He was already following the principle that "the deeper a soul has fallen into sin, the more it is bound down by the powers of hell, the greater should be the kindness of the confessor in order to win it to repentance, to snatch it from the devil, and to bring it to the arms of Jesus Christ." As a result, his confessional was besieged, and the miracles of grace accomplished by his kindness were almost innumerable.

That kindness and compassion were the secret of his power is clear from many of his remarks, and from the willing testimony of many of his penitents. He could not bring himself to be harsh and unmerciful to the sinners whom Jesus Christ loved. "With regard to the penance," he would say, "let us enjoin one that will be willingly accepted, one that we can be sure will be performed. We must beware of burdening a penitent with so heavy a task that it will be but grudgingly accepted and easily neglected. We must inspire horror for sin and not for the penance." Perhaps one of the most joyous admissions of his old age was that which he made to his confreres after a long life of labor for souls: "I do not recall ever sending away a sinner without being able to absolve him, nor do I recall ever having been unkind or harsh in the confessional."

The effect of his work, both in the pulpit and in the confessional, is astonishing. The common complaint of the preacher is that it is so easy to make people "listen," but so hard to inspire them to "do." No such futility attended the words of Alphonsus. When he spoke about the glory of virginity, there were always some, doubtful perhaps about their vocation before, who came to him begging permission to consecrate their lives to God. Incidents are related of his success in winning unfortunate women of the streets away from their sinful lives. Wealthy persons sat before him as he preached, and went away to divide up their wealth with the poor. The stories told by his early biographers seem like exaggerations, until the evidence is given that shows they were every day occurrences as a result of the glowing words and deeds of the young apostle. He was so successful in his work that the Neapolitan Propaganda voted to bestow upon him a very lucrative benefice, which had been given to them on the condition that it go to the one of their number most honored and esteemed.

Erotic cantilenas and bad songs were common among the people. The considerable evil they spread, especially among the youth, excited in him an ardent desire to fight against these scandals. He, therefore, according to the inspiration of the moment, composed a number of hymns truly popular in style as well as in feeling, some of them in Neapolitan dialect. And, as he was a musician of considerable merit, he popularized by melodies full of sweetness and piety his own verses. Later on, he trained his missionaries to sing them, and he sang them himself with the people, with his sweet and resonant voice. "These hymns, as graceful as they are moving," says Tannoia, "created as much enthusiasm as his preaching."

Out of his favorite work of preaching to unfortunate sinners in the streets of Naples, grew the first organized efforts of Alphonsus to help the most abandoned souls. At first this work was more or less haphazard; he merely went into the streets, gathered around him those who were willing to stop and listen, and talked about their duties to God. Those who heard him once, usually came a second and a third time, and brought others with them. Gradually the meetings grew to be more and more regular, and at the usual hour and place a throng would be gathered even before the young preacher made his appearance.

The meetings became so popular that Alphonsus needed help to conduct them and found it necessary to have them in different places at the same time. Some of his associate priests, among them John Mazzini, who became a lifelong friend, gladly gave themselves to the work, and there were many zealous converts who offered their assistance. There were two such men in particular who took a prominent part in the meetings; one was a young schoolmaster, Peter Barberese, whom Alphonsus had converted from an evil and scandalous life, and who thereafter devoted himself to the work of teaching catechism. The other was Nardone, a man who had been expelled from the army and who had been leading the life of an outlaw and robber. One sermon of Alphonsus brought him to confession and effected a complete change in his life. With these fellow priests and laymen, Alphonsus was conducting outdoor religious meetings regularly for the poor.

As is always the case, the meetings attracted the attention of outsiders, especially of some who at once became suspicious of what was going on. They would stand about on the fringes of the crowd, listening intently for a word or statement that could be twisted into evil. Finally they got what they had been seeking, though it turned out to be a ludicrous misinterpretation. As with all zealous converts, it was quite necessary at times for Alphonsus and his companions to warn their followers against extremes. They were inclined to go too far in their fasting, or to be too severe in the mortifications they inflicted upon themselves. One evening Alphonsus went into this matter, cautioning moderation, and one of his assistants spoke up and said humorously: "Yes, remember, we must eat to live — God wills it so. If you are given cutlets, take them and be thankful and may they do you good." The outsiders who were listening in considered this a scandalous thing to say, if not a heretical denial of the necessity of penance for salvation. They rushed headlong to the archbishop, and added to the report on these words an awe-inspiring description of nocturnal meetings, secret rites, and other details that hinted at nothing less than a plot being laid against the Church or the state.

The Cardinal archbishop thought that there might be some abuse, and the next day had the police authorities look into the matter. They sent an officer to the meeting in disguise, who came back with a report in which he expressed grave suspicions about several things that were said which he did not understand. On that report it was decided to arrest the ringleaders, and the decision was made known to the archbishop. It happened that Alphonsus was with him when news of the decision was brought and he recognized that it was his own meetings that were under suspicion. He hurried out to call off the meeting for that evening. It was impossible, however, to reach Barberese and Nardone, and they appeared at the usual place at the usual time and were promptly arrested. When questioned by the police, they told how the meetings had been organized by Alphonsus de' Liguori for the purpose of instructing the poor and ignorant in their religion. At the name of Alphonsus their questioners looked at one another, smiled and released them. But the affair caused quite a stir throughout the city and the laugh was on the police, who had been taken in by some poorly informed alarmists.

The incident was enough, however, to convince Alphonsus that it might not be entirely prudent to hold the meetings outdoors. Besides, it might easily lead to an outburst of open air meetings on the part of sectaries and Protestants. So he conceived the plan of gathering his strange flock together in private houses and chapels, from which it derived the name of "Association of the Chapels." They would meet sometimes in a barber shop, sometimes in a hat-maker's or some other shop, sometimes in a private home. There they would have their instructions, say a few prayers, perhaps sing a few hymns and then disperse happily. After a while, they were offered the use of chapels by the various organizations of the city, and the meetings became something like a perpetual mission. The people would meet every evening at six o'clock; the rosary and the Christian acts would be recited; then there would be an instruction on the duties of Christian life and on the manner of making meditation — the whole lasting about an hour and a half. On Saturdays priests would come and hear confessions, and on Sunday mornings, after half an hour's meditation on the Passion of the Savior, mass would be celebrated with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and Holy Communion would be received by all. During the day all would gather and go to a church for a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin.

There were many such groups living according to this schedule, each numbering from a hundred to a hundred and fifty persons. As time went on the nursing of the sick in the hospitals was added to the program. Thus Alphonsus was responsible for a genuine revival of Christian piety and devotion throughout the city of Naples, and the work went on for many years. In fact, in 1834, about a hundred years after the Association of the Chapels was founded, there were a hundred "chapels" in Naples alone, each numbering upwards of three hundred members. So far reaching an enterprise would have been enough in itself to immortalize Alphonsus; yet, in the light of subsequent events it was little more than a preparation for the great achievements that were to hallow his name.

While all this external activity was satisfying his zeal, he was not neglecting the interior development of his soul. As a member of the Congregation of Missionaries, he had the example of good and holy men around him to keep him from making the mistake of letting work for others substitute for his own sanctification; but he went farther than any of his companions in his own practices of devotion. He would spend at least two hours in meditation every day; ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• BOOK I EARLY YEARS (1696-1723)
• BOOK II PRIEST AND FOUNDER (1724-1762)
• BOOK III BISHOP AND RECTOR MAJOR (1762-1787)
• Complete list of St. Alphonsus' Books
• Bibliography