Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Alphonsus embraced the legal profession and rose in a short time to such a high degree of reputation that he was entrusted with the most difficult and complicated cases from all parts of the kingdom; but he never allowed his zeal for his clients, or his diligence in the pursuit of business, to cause him to deviate from the strictest justice or the practice of the most exemplary virtue. He heard Mass every morning before going to the bar and punctually observed all the fasts and other precepts of the Church; he approached the sacraments every eight days, and never failed, each year, through a spiritual retreat, to make amends for the faults of the past twelve months and to renew the fervor of his good resolutions.

The favor with which the Emperor Charles VI, who governed Naples at that time, regarded his family, and the high rank to which it was evident he would rise in the magistracy, led the leading families to conceive the desire to ally themselves with him through marriage. A sermon he heard around that time, in which a knight condemned to hell was described as having appeared to a lady of his acquaintance, produced a strong impression on the whole audience, and especially on Alphonsus, who, from that moment, gave himself more entirely to God, visited the hospital more frequently, and formed the resolution to no longer go to the theater and to attend the Forty Hours' devotion every day: which he put into practice punctually. But here is the circumstance that fixed his determination to renounce all the affairs of the world.

In a feudal lawsuit between two powerful princes, he had been charged with the defense. He spent a whole month preparing his evidence and studying the case; and on the day of the hearing, he won the applause and approval of the immense audience that the importance of the case and his reputation had attracted. The president was on the point of pronouncing a judgment in his favor, when the counsel for the opposing party, instead of attempting a rebuttal, smilingly asked him to examine the case again. He consented without the slightest hesitation, counting on the strength and clarity of the reasons he had alleged in support of his case; but what was his surprise when he discovered in the file a simple negative, which he had not noticed at first, and which overturned from top to bottom the very foundations of his reasoning! Accustomed as he was to handle only the cases he undertook with the most scrupulous good faith, he was ashamed and confused, in the apprehension that he might be blamed for it; but the whole audience justified him with a unanimous concert, and the president tried to reassure and encourage him, by observing that, in the ardor of the defense and the desire for success, such mistakes often happen even to the most upright men. Suddenly, however, shame and confusion were painted on his face, and, after having generously confessed that he was mistaken and having asked the judges for forgiveness, he modestly took his leave; and as he was leaving, he was heard to utter these words: "Deceitful world, I know you; you will deceive me no more." Upon returning home, he locked himself in his room for three days and shed many tears before his crucifix. During this time, he resolved to leave the legal profession and to dedicate himself to the ecclesiastical state; he sought the advice of his directors, and they approved his resolution. But when he approached his father to make him consent to his desire, he obtained only harshness, reproaches, and a refusal.

Alphonsus went to seek some relief for his pain in the exercise of his ordinary charity toward other unfortunates. One day, while he was in the Hospital for the Incurables, the house suddenly seemed to him to be shaken to its foundations; he thought he heard a voice saying to him with force: "What have you to do with the world?" He at first regarded this as an imagination, but as he went out, his eyes were struck by a dazzling light, and, in the midst of the noise of the hospital, which seemed to him to be collapsing, the same voice was heard again, repeating to him incessantly: "What have you to do with the world?" Then, no longer doubting that God was asking him by this to hasten his sacrifice, he felt animated by a supernatural courage, and, offering himself as a holocaust to the divine will, he cried out like Saint Paul: "Lord! Here I am, do with me what You will." And, speaking thus, he entered a nearby church: it was that of the Redemption of Captives, where the adoration of the Forty Hours was taking place that very day. There, prostrating himself before the adorable Victim, he begged Him to accept the offering of himself; then, suddenly, he unbuckled his sword and went to hang it at the altar of Our Lady of Mercy, as an authentic pledge of his inviolable commitment to the divine will. Father Pagano, his spiritual director, then gave, after mature examination, his definitive approval, and Alphonsus's resolution to devote himself to the service of the altars was irrevocably fixed. The difficulty was to obtain his father's consent. The latter employed his relatives and friends, even a Benedictine abbot, to turn his son from his resolution. Their efforts having been useless, the father had recourse to the Bishop of Troia, Msgr. Cavalieri, his brother-in-law; but this worthy prelate took the defense of his nephew. "And I too," he said to the father, "have left the world, I have renounced my right of primogeniture, and you want me after that to advise the contrary? Ah! I would be too guilty." These remonstrances finally wrung from the father a sort of consent that allowed Alphonsus to embrace the ecclesiastical state, provided that he always lived in the paternal home, without ever entering the Congregation of the Oratory. Even then, when it came to execution, he put it off from one time to another. There was no pretext, even the lack of money, that was not used to avoid buying the objects necessary for an ecclesiastic's trousseau. But Alphonsus provided for everything himself, and one day he appeared unexpectedly before his father in clerical dress. At this sight, the father let out a great cry, and, as if beside himself, he threw himself onto his bed, in a state of distress impossible to describe. He remained a whole year without even speaking a word to his son.

Thus, at the age of twenty-seven, our Saint renounced all the attractions and all the distinctions of the world; and the person who was destined to be his wife, imitating his example, became a nun at the convent of the Most Holy Sacrament in Naples, where she gave, during her life and at her death, so many proofs of virtue that her life, subsequently, was written by the Saint himself.

Just as the Israelites used the vessels of the Egyptians for the worship of God, so Alphonsus turned to the service of the Church all his knowledge and all the talents for which the world honors itself, and especially the talent he had for music and poetry; he composed several beautiful airs, with the goal of inspiring love and admiration for pious and devout songs, instead of the profane and improper songs that were in fashion, and which were ordinarily one's delight.

In the morning, he gave himself with ardor to the study of theology and religion, attended all the exercises of piety practiced in the house of the missionaries of Saint Vincent de Paul, went to confession, heard Mass and received Communion, and regularly frequented the sacraments. Every afternoon, he visited and comforted the sick at the hospital, heard a sermon in the church of the Oratorians, and then went to pay his devotions to the Blessed Sacrament in the church where it was exposed; he remained there for several hours, until it had been returned to the tabernacle, then he returned home. In the evening, he frequented the house of a pious ecclesiastic where conferences on subjects of piety were held; furthermore, he was part of a pious association whose members, like those of the confraternity of Saint John in Rome in our day, made a profession of consoling criminals before their execution, preparing them for death, and assisting them on the scaffold. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Naples admitted him to the tonsure on September 23, 1724, and to the four minor orders on December 23 of the same year. It was a subject of astonishment and edification for the whole city to see a man placed in such a high rank, and before whom such a brilliant career was opening, fulfilling the most humiliating duties of his new office, roaming the streets to gather children and lead them to the church, where he knew how to make himself like one of them, and applying himself to instilling in them the mysteries and truths of religion; during Lent especially, he neglected nothing to prepare them to approach the holy tribunal of Penance with the proper dispositions, at the time of the coming Easter.

If this holy conduct was the admiration of heaven and of those who, on earth, judge everything in the light of heaven, the world, which he had just left, took pleasure in covering him with contempt and ridicule: Alphonsus became the talk of the public, and his vocation was condemned as the senseless step of a light and inconsiderate mind. In the magistracy as in the bar, the disapproval was all the stronger because he had previously been granted more esteem and consideration; they seemed to push him away, as if he had dishonored the order to which he had belonged, to the point that the first president, who loved him tenderly when he was a lawyer, had his door closed to him when he became an ecclesiastic. However, this magistrate returned, before dying, to better sentiments. In his last illness, he received with much consolation the visit of Alphonsus. "Ah!" he exclaimed one day upon seeing him enter, "how happy you are, my excellent friend, in the choice you have made! How sweet it would be for me, in this last moment, to be able to bear witness to a similar sacrifice made in spite of the world in my young years, for the good of my poor soul! Pray for me, Alphonsus; I commend myself to your charity; save an unfortunate man who is about to appear before God and for whom the world has already passed."

Our Saint received the order of subdeacon in the church of Santa Restituta on September 22, 1725; and, immediately after, in order to better prepare himself to work in the Lord's vineyard, he entered a Congregation formed for the purpose of giving missions or series of sermons in the kingdom of Naples, to instruct the people and make them advance in virtue. His function was t Naples Place of the saint's death. o teach the catechism to children; and, in a short time, his kindness and gentleness won over all hearts so well that they ran after him when he left, and begged him to stay with them. On April 6 of the following year, he was ordained a deacon, and at the same time obtained the power to announce the word of God. He preached his first sermon in his own parish church during the exposition of the Forty Hours, in honor of Jesus present in the august Sacrament: the fervor and unction with which he spoke were a source of profit and edification for the faithful; then he was invited to preach now in one church, now in another, particularly during the Forty Hours' prayers. But his continual labors soon caused him a dangerous illness, from which he only escaped through the intercession of Our Lady of Mercy, whose statue was brought to his bedside, and who saved his life at the very moment he was about to give up his soul. As soon as he was recovered, Cardinal Pignatelli had him ordained a priest on December 22, 1726. From that moment, his life was nothing but a continual preaching and exhortation to virtue; from the altar where he received the bread of angels, the source of all strength, he went to preach the law and the love of God to the people of the city and the kingdom of Naples, producing everywhere miraculous conversions among abandoned and notorious sinners of both sexes, whose change was announced by the practice of the most exemplary virtue.

People of all classes came to hear him. A great man of letters, a famous satirist, never missed it. Alphonsus said to him one day jokingly: "Your assiduity at my sermons announces some hostile intention; would you, by chance, be preparing something against me?" — "No, certainly," replied the other; "you are without pretension, and one does not expect beautiful phrases from you; one cannot attack you when one sees you thus forgetting yourself, and rejecting all the ornaments of man to preach only the word of God; that would disarm criticism itself."

However, his father never said a word to him and avoided going to hear him. One day, however, he let himself be carried away by the crowd into a church: he was surprised and almost angry to find Alphonsus in the pulpit; he remained, however, and behold, this terrible father was disarmed: a sweet unction and an ineffable light entered his soul at the voice of this son whom he had treated so harshly. He could not help but exclaim upon leaving: "My son has made me know God." He felt all the injustice of his conduct, testified his regret to Alphonsus, and asked his pardon for it.

This priest, to whom God granted such grace for the conversion of souls, did not yet dare, although he had been ordained for a year, to sit on the tribunal of Penance, so high an idea did he have of this ministry. It was necessary for Cardinal Pignatelli to enjoin him, by virtue of holy obedience, to use the powers he had to hear confessions. Alphonsus obeyed humbly, and from then on produced incalculable fruits in the confessional, no less than in the pulpit. He did not limit himself to the guidance of a small flock that he had chosen for himself, but received indiscriminately all those who presented themselves, to the point that the day could not suffice for him and he spent part of the night hearing them. He did not cease in his old age to recommend this ministry as the most profitable for everyone: "By this," he often said, "sinners immediately make their peace with God, and the evangelical worker has nothing to lose of his merit through the seductions of vanity." He could not suffer those confessors who receive their penitents with a supercilious and repellent air, and those also who, after hearing them, send them away with disdain as unworthy or incapable of divine mercies. However severe he was for himself, he had, especially for sinners, an unspeakable gentleness: it was something infinitely attractive, the manner in which he used it toward them: without compromising regarding sin, he was all heart and all charity for the sinner. Thus, in his sermons, he never separated the justice of God from his mercy, persuaded that this was the means to lead souls to penance; the same principle, or rather the same sentiment, directed him in the confessional: he remembered that, if he was the judge of his penitent, he was also his father, and that it was a ministry of reconciliation, and not of rigor, that had been entrusted to him.

He expressly condemned the rigorism of certain grumpy and scolding spirits, whose harsh morality is diametrically opposed to evangelical charity. "The more a soul," he said, "is sunk in vice and engaged in the bonds of sin, the more one must try, by dint of kindness, to tear it from the arms of the demon to throw it into the arms of God; it is not very difficult to say to someone: Go away, you are damned, I cannot absolve you; but if one considers that this soul is the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, one will have horror of this conduct." He said furthermore, in his old age, that he did not remember ever having sent away a single sinner without absolving him, much less having treated him with harshness and bitterness. It is not that he gave absolution indiscriminately to those who were well-disposed and those who were ill-disposed; but, as he himself teaches us, he gave sinners the means to get out of their state, and, while he showed them the greatest charity and filled them with confidence in the merits of the Savior, he always managed to inspire in them a sincere repentance. He was accustomed to say: "If you do not show a charitable interest for the soul of your penitent, he will not quit his sin."

The Saint knew how to combine gentleness with a just severity in the imposition of penance; his principle was to oblige nothing that would not certainly be accomplished, and not to burden souls with obligations that they would only accept with reluctance, and that for that very reason they would willingly abandon. The penances he ordinarily gave were to return to confess after a certain time, to frequent confession and communion, to attend Mass every day while meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, as also to visit the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin, to recite the rosary and other similar things, which were as many means that he gave to get out of sin. As for macerations, he advised them, but did not prescribe them. "If the penitent," he said, "is truly contrite, he will embrace mortification himself; but if one makes it an obligation for him, he will leave the penance and keep the sin." By this gentle conduct, he endeared sinners to the sacrament of Penance, and managed to tear them away from iniquity. It is thus that a multitude of people of all classes, among those especially whose life had been the most criminal, returned to God under the direction of our Saint, and edified in the future even more than they had scandalized, although some of them had, before their conversion, displayed the most revolting immorality. He arrived at this consoling result by recommending to them the mortification of the passions and the flesh and the meditation of eternal truths. "By meditation," he said, "you will see your faults as in a mirror; by mortification, you will correct them: there is no true prayer without mortification, and no mortification without a spirit of prayer. Of all those I have known who were true penitents, there are none who were not very zealous for these two exercises." He also employed, as a great means to return to God, frequent communion and the daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Nothing can equal the idea he had of this devotion. "What delights," he was accustomed to say when he was still a layman, "what delights to be prostrate before the holy altar, to speak there familiarly to Jesus enclosed for the love of us in the august Sacrament; to ask him for pardon for the displeasures one has given him, to expose one's needs to him as a friend does to his friend, and to ask him for his love and the abundance of his graces!"

Such was the invariable system of Alphonsus's conduct toward his penitents, whom he sought especially in the class of the poor people. He did not reject persons of high rank, he even believed it important to receive them because of their authority and their example; but he never granted them any kind of distinction, and the attraction of his charity carried him especially toward the souls too often abandoned of the people of the lowest condition; thus one saw him sometimes in public squares and other most frequented places, as if in pursuit of the poorest, such as lazzaroni and others of that kind: he sought to have them surround him, and then led them to come to receive the grace of the Lord in the sacrament of Penance.

This was not yet enough for his ardent charity: he imagined gathering, during the summer evenings, a part of his penitents in some solitary and secluded place in the city; he chose successively different public squares in the neighborhood of the churches, and there, in the midst of a crowd of people of the lowest class, one saw him take pleasure in teaching them the first principles of religion. Some holy priests and pious laymen wanted to associate themselves with this good work, which soon grew greatly; but the demon thwarted it: and soon the civil authority became frightened by this gathering, and it had to be renounced. The ecclesiastics who were part of it did not separate for that, and the desire to edify one another led them to meet with Alphonsus, several times a month, in the house of one of them. They ordinarily spent at least a whole day there, giving themselves to all the exercises of the religious life, such as the recitation of the office, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and bodily penances.

However, our Saint had not lost sight of the instruction of the lower people. To this effect, he divided a large number of these poor people among several of his most zealous and instructed penitents, whom he made into as many catechists. These small meetings multiplied more and more, and soon they no longer took place in private houses, but with the approval of Cardinal Pignatelli, in chapels and oratories. It is from there that came what is called in Naples the instruction of the chapels, a good work that still sustains itself today, so great has its utility appeared. One counts currently in the city of Naples nearly eighty of these meetings, of one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty persons each. It is always priests who preside over them. They do not limit their zeal there to the teaching of the first elements of religion, but they administer there the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist, direct the exercises of piety, which are very multiplied on feast days and Sundays, and neglect nothing of what can lead to virtue: they succeed there. This work has long been a subject of consolation for the archbishops of Naples, and produces among these poor people of the populace men very eminent in holiness. It has spread in Europe, and mainly in Belgium, from where it passed to France under the name of the Holy Family.

An apostolic man, a missionary to China, Father Matteo Ripa, came to Naples, bringing with him four young Indians from his missions; his goal was to train them in the exercise of the holy ministry, and thereby strengthen the European missionaries who were in their country: he even obtained from the Emperor and from Pope Benedict XIII the authorization to establish for this purpose in Naples a college where he was to receive new students who would come to him from the Indies.

An establishment of this kind deeply interested Alphonsus because of the hope of the good that was to result from it; he saw in it, moreover, a suitable retreat for the ministry he was exercising and which seemed to him little compatible with his residence in his father's house: he therefore asked to be received into the new college as a boarder. He even had the thought of devoting himself to the missions of India and China; but his director was of the opinion that God was calling him to the missions of his native land. In the meantime, Alphonsus preached and heard confessions every day, mainly in the church of the Chinese college, and always with admirable success. To his external preaching he joined the most fervent prayers, fasts, and extraordinary mortifications, to draw down upon sinners the grace of conversion.

All the bishops of the kingdom of Naples would have liked to have in their diocese an apostle who stirred up repentance and compunction in every heart; they pressed him strongly to give the mission to their people. Numerous conversions of sinners long buried in iniquity, as well as a general renewal of the spirit of faith and piety, marked his labors everywhere.

His tender patroness, the Blessed Virgin, rewarded his zeal by appearing to him in the sight of an immense crowd of people, gathered in the church of Foggia to hear a discourse on his favorite subject: the intercession and protection of Mary. From her face, a ray of light, similar to those of the sun, was reflected upon that of her devout and pious servant; all the people were witnesses to it and cried out: "Miracle! Miracle!" All recommended themselves with great fervor, and shedding abundant tears, to the Mother of God; several women even of ill repute were seized with such deep repentance that they climbed onto a platform in the church and began to discipline themselves, crying out with all their might: "Mercy!" then, upon leaving the church, they retired to the house of the Penitents of that city. Alphonsus, in his legal testimony, deposed that, during the sermon, the entire crowd that made up his audience, and he himself, had seen the Blessed Virgin, in the form of a young person of fourteen or fifteen years of age, who was turning from side to side, in the sight of all those who were present.

While he was preaching the mission in the city of Scala, he was invited by the nuns of the Most Holy Savior to preach during the novena that preceded the feast celebrated there in honor of the crucifixion of Our Lord. Among these nuns, there was one of holy life, favored with several supernatural graces, named Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa, who had founded or reformed several convents. One day when she was at the confessional and speaking with the Saint about spiritual subjects, she said to him: "God does not want you to remain in Naples; He is calling you for the foundation of a Congregation of missionaries, who will provide spiritual aid to the souls of those who are now deprived of all means of instruction." These words threw Alphonsus into great affliction and trouble of mind: for he did not yet know if such was the will of God, and saw himself surrounded by difficulties, without companions who could help him in his enterprise; he prayed fervently to the Father of lights to enlighten his understanding and to make known to him His divine will; and, after having consulted several persons famous for their discernment of spirits, and of proven virtue, he was convinced that God wanted him to carry out the design of founding a new Congregation of missionaries. As soon as his intention was known in Naples, there were several who, for fear of losing such a zealous missionary, or at the sight of the difficulties that seemed to oppose his enterprise, strongly disapproved of this design. He met with lively resistance from the Cardinal-Archbishop and several ecclesiastics, who, considering all the good done through him in Naples, could not bring themselves to believe that God expected more from him. His father assailed him with his tears and his representations, conjuring him not to abandon him; and Alphonsus has since confessed that this was the most violent temptation he had experienced in his whole life, and that God alone had enabled him to overcome it and to resist it. To avoid new assaults, he left Naples secretly at the beginning of November 1732, and went, with only a few companions, to Scala, where the bishop had already invited him to open the first house and to begin the foundation of the Order. He went to live with his companions in a miserable house, with a small garden that depended on it; he obtained permission to convert one of the rooms into an oratory, where, on November 9 of the same year, after having sung a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit followed by the *Te Deum*, in thanksgiving for the favors he had already received from God, he laid the foundations of the new Congregation then called *of our divine Savior*, whose members were to be employed in preaching and bringing the aids of religion to the poor peasants, who, living in cottages scattered in the countryside, or in small villages and hamlets, are often deprived of all the benefits of instruction and the frequenting of the sacraments. His first companions were twelve in number: ten priests and two lawyers not yet admitted to orders; and in addition, a lay brother who served them: his name was Vitus Curzio, and he was a wealthy inhabitant of Acquaviva, who, having renounced all his earthly goods, following a vision he had had in Naples, had chosen this humble employment in the new Order. One has reason to compare the life of these first Fathers to those of the holy penitents of whom Saint John Climacus speaks in his *Ladder of Divine Ascent*. Their house was small and uncomfortable, their beds, a simple straw mattress spread on the floor; they had for all food, in general, a dish of insipid and unpleasant soup, with a small portion of fruit; their bread was black, without even being leavened, due to the inexperience of the lay brother who made it, and so hard that it had to be crushed in a mortar before it could be eaten. This miserable food, which they took on their knees or lying on the floor, they made even more nauseating by watering it with some bitter drug; several of them even, before eating, licked the floor with their tongues. They disciplined themselves three times a week. To mortification, they joined a true spirit of fervor in prayer. Besides the office which they recited in choir, they assembled three times a day to pray for half an hour and read the lives of the Saints. A quarter of an hour was assigned for a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and to Our Lady; but they remained a great part of the day and night in prayer before the divine Eucharist. They attended Mass with the most edifying piety and recollection. Their only time of relaxation was an hour after dinner, which they spent in spiritual conversations, or in speaking of the actions of the Saints. But Alphonsus, who was the soul and the engine of all these pious exercises, surpassed all his brothers in his mortifications, his fervor, and his exact practice of recollection and silence; and, to hide the rigor with which he disciplined himself, he often retired into a cellar or cave, where, as it is generally believed, Our Lady appeared to him several times. However, they did not forget the main object of their institute: by the effect of their preaching and their apostolic labors in Scala and the surrounding places, the whole diocese took on a new face, and a large number of extraordinary conversions took place.

The number of his colleagues having increased considerably, Alphonsus resolved to give stability and regularity to his congregation, by forming a rule to direct it; but here arose a difficulty which he did not expect, and which resulted from the different way in which several points of their new rule were viewed by his companions. Some were of the opinion that, besides the missions, they should open schools for the instruction of the poor in science; others opposed the strict and rigorous poverty that they had until then observed; while some others, on the contrary, thought that it was necessary to require from all those who entered the Order a still more complete renunciation of all temporal property. Alphonsus did everything to convince them that true poverty was an essential point of their rule, and that opening schools for the poor, although it was a work of charity, would only serve to distract them from the sole object of their foundation, the spiritual instruction of the poor. His reasons remained without effect; he was abandoned by all his companions, with the exception of two, one of whom was not in Holy Orders, and the other was the lay brother who has already been mentioned. His enemies then began to triumph and to represent his enterprise as presumptuous and rash; as for him, he continued, despite their mockery and invectives, to hope that God would soon provide him with companions, while blessing His merciful hand for having sent him this humiliation. New companions arrived in crowds from all sides; so that in 1735, three years after the foundation of his Order, he was in a position to open three houses, including the first one in Scala.

Everything appearing to him to be established on a firm footing, he resolved to implore the divine light to assist him in the drafting of the rules that were to be observed and the vows that were to be made by the members of his Order. He addressed fervent prayers to the Holy Spirit, accompanying them with an austere fast and a rigorous mortification, and took the advice of the persons most eminent for their science and piety. Under their direction, aided by the grace of God, he composed the rules and constitutions of his Order, to which he gave the name of our divine Savior. He then made a touching speech to his companions, in which he begged them, as disciples of Jesus Christ, to imitate His perfect holocaust to His natural Father, and to offer themselves to Him in sacrifice for the salvation of souls, by promising an exact observance of the rules he proposed to them. He prescribed many prayers and the pious exercise of a holy retreat to implore divine assistance; and, finally, on July 21 of the year 1742, in a poor chapel near Ciorani, in the diocese of Salerno, after having sung the Vespers of Saint Mary Magdalene, patroness of the Congregation, they made their profession, which, besides the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, contained two others: the first, never to accept any dignity, office, or benefice, outside the Congregation, unless by an express command of the Pope or the Superior General; the second, to remain in the Order until death, and to ask for a dispensation from it only from the Pope or the Superior General. The brothers then proceeded to the election of a superior for the whole Order, and Alphonsus was elected unanimously, with the title of Rector Major.

The reputation of the admirable virtue and holiness of Alphonsus spread every day more in the country and in the neighboring regions; and several houses of the Order were founded in different cities of the kingdom. This is what determined him to obtain the confirmation of his institute by the Holy See: for this purpose, he deputed one of his companions to go and lay the constitutions he had drafted at the feet of the immortal pontiff Benedict XIV, who then occupied the chair of Saint Peter. After a mature examination, he gave the brief that approved them, on February 25, 1749. He confirmed Alphonsus in the office of superior, and granted the Order a great number of favors and privileges; but he wanted its name to be changed from that of our divine Savior to that of our divine Redeemer, to distinguish it from the Congregation of the Canons Regular of our divine Savior. From that moment, the Order took on rapid growth, and houses Benoît XIV Pope who beatified Jerome Emiliani. were founded in the States of the Church, as well as in the kingdom of Naples. Alphonsus had to struggle against many obstacles in the efforts he made to establish it in various places; and he was accustomed to say that God performed a continual miracle in his favor, by providing him with the means to found new houses and to support those that already existed; for, finding himself without money to accomplish it, he placed all his hope in God, and was never deceived.

He surpassed all his companions in the exactitude with which he observed all the rules and obligations of the Order; and when one knows the rigor of the disciplines he imposed upon himself, and the austerity of his fasts and mortifications, one cannot help but ask how he could live. He contented himself with a small portion of soup and bread with a few fruits, which he never consumed on Saturdays or the vigils of the feasts of Our Lady. He continually wore rough hair shirts, with small iron chains and a camel-hair belt. In addition to the time assigned for prayer by the rule, he rose early in the morning to meditate on the truths and mysteries of religion, and kept his mind so closely united to God that his prayer experienced no interruption and never ceased. He consecrated all his actions to the glory of God, toward whom he often turned his heart with fervent outbursts and burning aspirations of love; when he celebrated Mass or recited the Office of the Church, his whole person breathed an air of piety and edification. He regulated the affairs of the Order and provided for all its needs with the most indefatigable diligence and zeal. He worked to inspire in his brothers a love of humiliations, contempt, and suffering, in imitation of our divine Redeemer, whose name they bore, and he represented to them strongly, both by word of mouth and in writing, the necessity of living in accordance with the vows they had taken and the spirit of the institute they professed. The superiors bound themselves by oath not to permit the members of the Order to possess anything of their own; to permit them nothing, in a word, that could in the least degree breach their vow of poverty. He would interrupt the composition of his works and any other occupation to attend to what concerned his brothers: "When it happens," he wrote to them, "that someone comes to speak to me, or writes to me for his affairs or for those of the Order, I leave everything... I wish it to be well known that he who treats me with this kind of confidence attaches me more strongly to him, and that all may hold it for certain that I leave everything when I have to be of service to one of my brothers and my children. I feel more eager to assist one of them than to do anything else. This is the good that the Most High asks of me in preference to all else, as long as I occupy this office." When someone fell ill, his affection and solicitude to console him would redouble; he would go to visit him and take care that his food was well prepared and suitably seasoned. He would not send back to his family a sick man attacked by pneumonia, saying that sick brothers were useful to the Congregation through their prayers, and by providing others with the means to practice works of mercy. "We are their father," he said, speaking of the sick, "and the Order is their mother. Since they have left father and mother to consecrate themselves to God, we must fulfill toward them all the duties of charity.

As the function of preaching, instructing, and hearing the confessions of the poor was the main end of the Congregation, he took care to prepare his novices, through long practice and long experience, for the apostolic ministry. He had an aversion to improvised speeches, the flowers of rhetoric, rounded periods, and the brilliance and pomp of expressions. "If the poorest people do not understand me," he was accustomed to say, "what is the use of calling them to church? Wills are not moved, and our preaching remains without fruit. I may have to account for everything else, but not for my sermons; I have always preached in such a way as to make myself understood by the most ignorant good woman." Let us not think, however, that he was opposed to the study and use of the art of oratory in preaching. "The less one knows of rhetoric," he observed with reason, "the less one is able to adapt oneself to the simplicity of the apostolic style. The Greek and Latin Fathers were masters in this art; that is why they knew so well how to put themselves within everyone's reach, and, when the circumstance commanded it, to use it to advantage. If art is lacking, the sermon will be insipid and without rule; and, instead of penetrating the mind or the heart of the audience, it will inspire only disgust and aversion for the preacher." To encourage the study of the art of oratory, he published two letters on popular eloquence, which he sent to many bishops, priests, and heads of religious Orders. He showed no less zeal in urging his brothers to devote themselves to the study of moral theology. "If you do not know it," he told them, "you lose yourselves, and you send your penitents to hell: this study only ends with life itself." He condemned excessive leniency and excessive severity as equally disastrous for souls; if he learned that one of his priests had fallen into one of these extremes, he had no more rest or consolation. He inculcated the necessity of using great precautions and great prudence with habitual and relapsing sinners. "Pay close attention," he said, "to how you absolve this class of sinners. Their tears, if they shed any, are deceptive; they do not weep out of hatred for sin, but to force you to give them absolution so that they may begin again." He recommended not sending them away abruptly from the confessional, but showing them tenderness and sympathy, making them understand the misfortune of their state, and persuading them that amendment is not impossible if they are willing to have recourse to the grace of God and the protection of the Blessed Virgin.

But, as the capital point of his Order was to instruct the poor people of the country parishes, scattered in the least frequented parts of the region, he made it his constant occupation, for thirty years, to visit all the provinces, all the towns and villages of the kingdom, teaching the catechism to children, hearing confessions, and preaching to the people. When he had arrived in sight of the place where the Mission was to be given, he would recite the litanies of the Blessed Virgin and other prayers, to attract the blessings of heaven. He would then go to the main church; and, after having adored the Blessed Sacrament, he would mount the pulpit and invite the people in the most pressing manner to profit from the grace of God in the spiritual exercises of the days that were to follow.

Every day, morning and evening, the missionaries preached to the adults and taught the catechism to the children. The first three evenings they would walk through the most popular streets, a crucifix in hand, inviting the inhabitants to remember their last ends and to come to hear the word of God. Alphonsus, who gave the main sermon in the evening, was accustomed to take the discipline with a thick rope, three times during the mission: once during the sermon on sin; the second time, during the sermon on hell; and the third, during the sermon on scandal; and when the women had left the church after the evening sermon, and only men remained, a sermon on compunction was addressed to them, to excite them to discipline themselves. After these sermons, three or four more days were spent in the way of devotion, as Alphonsus called it; and, during that time, the preachers insisted on the necessity of prayer and on the Passion of Our Lord, which he depicted in such touching terms that all those present shed tears of love and tenderness.

There were also other sermons for the instruction of children, young people, unmarried women and widows, and for married women as well; these sermons were appropriate to the needs and the way of life of each. The retreat ended with a general communion; and, after a sermon on perseverance, the blessing was solemnly given to all the people. On the last day of the way of devotion, in order to leave an indelible memory of the Passion in the minds of the people, Alphonsus erected a Calvary, as he called it, at the entrance to the village or town. With four companions, each carrying, like him, a heavy cross on their shoulders, he advanced toward the place where they were to be erected, and, after having planted them in the ground, he proposed a pious meditation on the mysteries of the Passion, which produced a deep impression in the hearts of all those present. During the Mission, he obliged his priests to remain seven hours, including the time for Mass, in the confessional every morning; and they could not leave it without the permission of the superior. They were forbidden to receive any gift or reward whatsoever, and their table was restricted to the most frugal food, which was provided by the charity of the bishop or one of the inhabitants. It was enough for him to appear in the pulpit to excite feelings of piety; and several conversions were brought about by seeing his attitude and gestures, even from a distance. In the confessional, he received the poor and the rich with the same affectionate feelings of compassion, and knew how to suggest to them such powerful motives that they never hesitated to confess their sins freely, without a false shame preventing them from willingly undergoing a moment's confusion to obtain a more lasting pardon and peace.

To ensure the fruit of the missions, he prolonged them for up to fifteen and even thirty days, until he had produced a complete reform among the people; and, during the station, he took care to form pious confraternities among the members of the various ranks of society, so that, through mutual good examples and practices of devotion, the effects of the Mission could be solid and lasting. God rewarded his zeal with several wonders. One day, during a Mission that was being given in Amalfi, someone, going to confession at the house where Alphonsus lived, found him there at the very moment when the sermon was to begin in the church; after finishing his confession, this man went straight to the church, and, to his great astonishment, found Alphonsus already somewhat advanced in his sermon. This circumstance astonished him greatly; for, upon his departure, he had left Alphonsus occupied with hearing the confession of other people in his house, and had not seen him leave by the only door through which it was possible to pass to get to the church. Thus the rumor spread in the city that Alphonsus was hearing confessions at his home at the same time that he was preaching in the church. When he was preaching on the protection of the Blessed Virgin, and was exhorting his listeners to have recourse to her with confidence in all their needs, he suddenly cried out: "Oh! You are too cold in your prayers to our holy Lady! I am going to pray to her for you." He then threw himself on his knees in the attitude of prayer, his eyes raised toward heaven; and all those who were present saw him raised more than a foot in the air, and turning toward a statue of the Blessed Virgin that was near the pulpit. The face of Our Lady cast rays of light, which were reflected on the face of Alphonsus, who was then in ecstasy. This spectacle lasted about five or six minutes, during which the people cried: "Mercy, mercy! Miracle, miracle!" And everyone burst into tears. But the Saint, rising again, cried out in a loud voice: "Rejoice, the Blessed Virgin has heard your prayer." Before the missionaries left the city, Alphonsus predicted that there would be an earthquake the next day, and the event confirmed the truth of his words.

These apostolic labors and miraculous actions filled the entire kingdom with the fame of the Saint's holiness and learning; the King and the high clergy resolved to raise him to the episcopal dignity. He was first nominated to the Archbishopric of Palermo; but, through his fervent prayers and mortifications, he succeeded in obtaining from God that he not be forced to accept this dignity. Shortly thereafter, the Bish opric of Sant'Agata de' Sainte-Agathe des Goths Diocese of which Alphonsus was bishop. Goti having become vacant, Po pe Clement X Clément XIII Pope who granted indulgences for the cult of Saint Gregory. III appointed him to it, based on the personal knowledge he had of his merits, and without any recommendations having come to him from elsewhere. Alphonsus wrote the most pressing letters to several of his friends and to the Pope himself, in which he represented his incapacity, his advanced age, the weak state of his health, and his vow to accept no benefice, and begged to be relieved of such a heavy burden. The evening he had received his letter, the Pope was inclined to reassure him by acceding to his request; but the next morning he ordered his secretary, Cardinal Negroni, to inform Alphonsus that it was his positive will that he accept the bishopric. The cardinal asked if His Holiness had not told him, the previous evening, that he was inclined to yield to his urgent entreaties: "It is true," replied the Pope, "but the Holy Spirit has since inspired me to do the contrary." As soon as Cardinal Spinelli, to whom Alphonsus had written on this subject, learned what the Pope had said, he immediately exclaimed: "It is the will of God, the voice of the Pope is the voice of God." When Alphonsus received the letter from Cardinal Negroni, he bowed his head and said: *Obmutui, quoniam tu fecisti; gloria Patri, etc.*: "I was silent, for you have done it; glory be to the Father," etc.; then, placing the letter on his head, he repeated these words several times: "God wills that I be a bishop; well then! I shall be a bishop. The Pope has ordered it, I must obey." The fears inspired in him by the responsibility and duties of his new dignity threw him into a fever so violent that his life was despaired of. The Pope was deeply afflicted upon learning of the danger in which he found himself, without, however, changing his resolution regarding him. "If he dies from it, we send him our apostolic blessing; if he recovers, we wish to see him in Rome." Alphonsus recovered and left immediately for Rome. His brothers, afflicted by the loss of such a father, addressed the Pope through the intermediary of the Congregation of Cardinals in charge of the affairs of bishops and religious Orders, and obtained that he be confirmed in his office of Superior of the Order, on May 25 of that year 1762.

Upon his arrival in Rome, the Pope having left for Castel Gandolfo, the Saint resolved to visit the holy house of Our Lady of Loreto. He celebrated Mass every morning in this venerable sanctuary, and spent several hours in contemplation of the goodness and love of the eternal Son of God, who, for us, deigned to dwell in this humble and poor abode. His face radiated love when he kissed all the objects that had belonged to the Holy Family; it was a source of edification and piety for his companions to be witnesses of his fervor and the veneration with which he honored this sanctuary, consecrated by the presence of a God made man.

Back in Rome, he was received by the Pope and the cardinals with all sorts of marks of esteem and veneration. He was consecrated bishop in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, on June 20, 1762, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He made his preparations for departure, and left Rome immediately to go to his diocese. He stopped for a few days in Naples to arrange the affairs of his Order, and took the road to Sant'Agata, despite the representations of his friends, who told him that it was extremely dangerous to go there at that time of year. He was received with great demonstrations of joy by the people, who had already formed a high opinion and high esteem of him, based on the reputation for virtue and holiness that had preceded him there.

He had declared his opinion and outlined rules of conduct for bishops in the fulfillment of the duties of their office, in a small volume published by him on this matter: the rest of his life was but a copy, trait for trait, of what is written in this book. He continued to practice, in his clothing, in the furnishing of his palace, and in his manner of living, the same rigorous poverty that had distinguished him in the Congregation. The sacred vessels he used as bishop were of the poorest; one saw little silver there; and this little silver was devoted to the relief of the poor, as well as a carriage and two mules that had been given to him by his brother, and which he sold later for the same purpose. He slept, as before, on a straw mattress, and his apartments were so completely devoid of furniture that, when by chance a stranger came to visit him, he was obliged to borrow beds, linen, and dishes for his use; and, on several occasions, his charity left him unable to meet even the most modest expenses. His food was of the most common, and he even mixed in wormwood and other bitter herbs: to the point that the poor who flocked to him refused to eat what he left of it. He had only a few servants, whom he treated, on every occasion, with the greatest kindness and gentleness. His mortifications seemed to increase in rigor and number; and, one day, his secretary was obliged to force the door of his room and snatch the discipline from his hands, for fear that the violence of the blows he was inflicting upon himself would cause his death. He spent a large part of the night in prayer, after having been occupied all day with the affairs of his diocese. One of the canons of the cathedral begged him one day to take a moment of rest, until his headache had passed; he replied that, if he waited for that, he would never be in a state to return to work, because his headache never left him.

In the care with which he fulfilled the duties of his office, he showed himself a perfect imitator of the zealous and tireless Saint Charles Borromeo. During the thirteen years of his episcopate, he was never absent from his diocese for even the space of three months, as permitted by the Council of Trent; he was absent only for a very short time, on three occasions of urgent necessity: twice for the affairs of his Order; and the other, according to an express command of his directors, because of his health. He worked to reform morals and to excite a true spirit of piety throughout his diocese, by his private discourses no less than by his sermons and missions. Each year, he visited half of his diocese, and, before beginning his visit, he made a novena with his people to bring down the Lord's blessings upon his labors. During the visit, he refused any kind of gift, of however small a value it might be, saying that it was contrary to the canons. He heard the confession of those who expressed the desire to him and addressed instructions to the people. If there were sick people who had not received the sacrament of Confirmation, he hastened to go and administer it to them at their homes, despite the inclemency of the weather, the bad state of the roads, and all the other difficulties that could be encountered; and as long as his health permitted, he took care to visit all the sick at home. He never undertook anything that had to do with his diocese without having first implored divine light through fervent prayers; in matters of major importance, he distrusted his own judgment and sought the advice of other bishops, upon whom he founded his confidence. But what he desired above all was to inspire in his clergy a spirit of piety, learning, morality, and zeal for the honor of religion; to this end, he put back into force the regulations of the canons of the synods or of his predecessors regarding the clothing and conduct of ecclesiastics. He applied himself to making them the model of their flock and charged priests of irreproachable life to inform him of the faults they committed in the observation of their duties, so that they might be immediately corrected. He examined with care all those who presented themselves for the reception of Holy Orders and to obtain benefices; not content with having those who came to ask for powers to hear confessions undergo a severe and rigorous examination, he instructed them himself for several days in the practical part of this important duty; these powers granted, the one who had obtained them was obliged to return after a certain time to undergo a second examination and obtain confirmation of them. He established conferences once a week in all parts of his diocese, on questions of moral theology, and commanded all ecclesiastics to attend, under severe penalties; he attended them himself regularly, and when his health forced him to stay in bed, he wanted the conference to be held in his room. He composed his *Dominicale*, or abridged course of discourses for Sundays, for the use of his priests in their sermons and explanations of the Gospel of each Sunday; and his *Selva*, or materials for sermons and instructions for the use of priests in their spiritual retreats and private readings, accompanied by practical instructions on the exercises of the missions.

He watched with no less diligence over the students who were destined for the ecclesiastical state; he visited his seminary twice a week and neglected nothing to strengthen in their still tender hearts the love of piety and the desire to devote themselves entirely to the Lord. He composed pious airs that they were to sing during their recreation time. He did not want them to leave the seminary during the vacations, for fear that they might lose their habits of diligence and regularity and take on the spirit of the world.

One will easily conceive with what zeal he worked to extirpate scandals from his diocese and to propagate morality and piety among his people. He expelled a troupe of actors, for fear that their way of life would corrupt his flock, and proceeded with the same firmness against all those who led a scandalous life, without regard for their rank or the influence they had at court. He converted several public sinners through his gentle and persuasive eloquence and procured for them a retreat and means of subsistence, for fear that poverty would make them return to their corrupt ways; but he drove from his diocese those whom he found incorrigible. Having learned that one of these lost women had taken advantage of his absence to return, he was deeply afflicted, and when he was asked the cause of his sorrow, he replied: "It is because I am a bishop"; and at that very instant, without considering the danger to which her return exposed him, for it was for health reasons that he had left his diocese, he returned to Arienzo, had this woman brought into his presence, and spoke to her with such force and energy that she fell at his feet, renounced her bad habits from then on, and retired to a house of refuge, where she became a model of sincere conversion and exemplary life.

The zeal and charity of the holy bishop were constantly directed toward the instruction and spiritual advancement of his flock. He built and repaired churches, formed new parishes, and provided funds for the maintenance and subsistence of the priests to whose care he entrusted them; he introduced the praiseworthy practice of proposing a meditation on the Passion of Our Lord and other subjects appropriate to the needs of the people, in the morning at the first Mass; he ordered that the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament be held every evening and that pious prayers be recited in honor of Our Lord, who is present there; and on Saturdays, he never failed to proclaim the glory and praises of Our Lady, so that all hearts would burn with love and devotion for her. He established confraternities among his flock as means proper to lead the faithful to frequent the Sacraments and to come to hear the word of God; he maintained the spirit of their foundation by preaching often. One evening when he was preaching, during a retreat, to the men's confraternity of Arienzo, on the protection of the Blessed Virgin, he was suddenly rapt in ecstasy; his face shone with such brilliance that the whole church was illuminated with an unusual light, and he exclaimed: "See how the Blessed Virgin comes to pour out graces among us! let us pray to her, and we shall obtain everything we ask for."

When Alphonsus took possession of his see, he resolved to administer its temporalities in such a way that, with the exception of a modest sum necessary for his subsistence and other indispensable expenses, all the income would be for the poor. To this end, he reserved for himself only the income that his father had left him, and gave all the rest to the poor, who, every evening, crowded the doors of his palace; he could not bear for anyone to leave dissatisfied with him, and, when he went out, he was surrounded by troops of beggars, to whom, none excepted, he gave some relief either with his own hands or through the intermediary of others; furthermore, he ordered his steward to distribute bread and money, every Saturday, at the door of his palace, to all who would present themselves. But, not content with these public charities, he obliged his priests to give him exact lists of all the persons who were in need and whom shame prevented from asking. He gave them monthly pensions, or sent them relief in money, linen, or other necessities. He searched for priests who were unable to say Mass, or who were in extreme poverty, as well as poor sick and elderly people, unable to work; widows burdened with numerous families, and orphans deprived of their parents, in order to assist them; in a word, the needy of every class were supported by his charity. He took particular care of poor young girls; he provided for all their needs, and, if they came to be married, he paid them a dowry and furnished their house. He sent money to poor prisoners in their prison, helped their families, or delivered them from prison by making arrangements with their creditors. It was found, upon calculation, that the sums he spent on works of charity far surpassed all the expenses of his house and those required by his rank, as well as the salary of all his servants. He rendered justice free of charge and maintained at his own expense a priest to defend poor priests and other persons in the ordinary courts of justice. These charities reduced him to such poverty that he was often obliged to borrow money to pay the expenses of his table. One day, when a person had come to ask him for seven ducats to satisfy a creditor who was threatening him with prison, he did not even have such a modest sum at his disposal, and pledged to pay it in installments from month to month; and as there remained about two installments to pay when he resigned his bishopric, he paid everything before leaving the diocese.

But this was nothing in comparison to his charities during the great famine that afflicted all of Italy in 1764. He sold the carriage and the mules that had been given to him by his brother, and did not even spare his pastoral ring and his gold crozier. He reduced his table to a portion of bread and soup, to which he sometimes added a few fruits, and encouraged his family to do the same for the good of the poor. Having nothing else at his disposal, he was on the point of selling his rochet and his watch; but his servants represented to him that he needed them to regulate his time. He obtained from his brother and from one of the members of his clergy relief in grain and beans, which he distributed, without losing time, to the poor. He urgently recommended charity to the civil authorities, to the ecclesiastics, and to the religious communities, and severely reprimanded the superior of a convent who had shown parsimony in his alms. One day he found his room full of poor people who were claiming his help: "My children," he said to them with tears in his eyes, "I have nothing left to give you; I have sold my carriage, my mules, and everything I had; I have no more money, and I can no longer find anyone who wants to lend me any." At these words, they began to shed tears, and after having mingled his tears with theirs, he went into another room, and let his servants distribute alms to them.

During all the time that he was Bishop of Sant'Agata, he had much to suffer regarding his bodily health; on three occasions, his illness reduced him to the state of the most extreme weakness; and yet he continued to fulfill all the duties of his office and to provide for all the needs of his diocese. The tireless zeal with which he worked to procure the good of his flock led him to preach every day during a novena that was held during the month of August, to obtain rain in a time of drought. This exercise, after a long illness, the heat of the season, and his natural weakness caused a general rheumatism that paralyzed the movement of all his limbs and bent his head so much that it was no longer possible for him to say Mass or even to lie down without discomfort. It was discovered, after his death, that the six vertebrae of the neck formed only one solid bone with the cartilages that are found there. But, after several months of cruel pain and suffering, the fever that accompanied the rheumatism left him, and the wound that had been caused by the bending of the head, and which, as it seemed likely, coming to gangrene, was to cause his death in a short time, healed; but his head remained so inclined on his chest for the last seventeen years of his life that he could only drink a few drops at a time, and was consequently in the impossibility of saying Mass. He still continued to preach and to attend the examinations of those who presented themselves to receive Holy Orders or to obtain powers to hear confessions, and the ecclesiastical conferences of his clergy. Some time later, however, he followed the advice of some learned theologians, who declared to him that he could very well say Mass and receive the chalice, seated and assisted by a priest in a stole and surplice; but he refused to adhere to the advice of certain others who wanted to persuade him to have recourse to the Pope, to obtain permission to use a tube for this, saying that he preferred not to say Mass at all than to solicit a privilege that was reserved for the sovereign Pontiff.

For a long time he had the desire to renounce the episcopal office, which obedience alone had compelled him to accept. He consulted several men of science and prudence; and, with their consent, he wrote to Pope Clement XIII, and explained to him the reasons that had determined him to take this step; but the Pope replied that his name alone sufficed for the good government of his diocese. He addressed himself in the same way to the following Pope, Clement XIV, who wrote to him, as his only reply, that a single prayer made by him on his bed, for the good of his diocese, was of greater weight in the eyes of God than a thousand visits and a thousand strokes of discipline given until blood was drawn. He therefore continued to administer his diocese, waiting, as he said, for the advent of a new Pope to be relieved of it. On September 21, 1774, he fell into a peaceful sleep that lasted until the next day, when all of a sudden he rang his bell. His servants ran to him in alarm, and asked him what was the matter; for he had been two days without eating or speaking: "That may be," he replied, "but do you not know that I was assisting the Pope who has just died?" A few days later, it was indeed learned that Clement XIV had died precisely on the day and at the very hour when Alphonsus had called the people of his house to announce his death to them. As soon as he learned of the election of Pius VI, he wrote him a letter full of humility; and, after a few days' delay, he received a favorable reply, in which the Pope deplored the circumstances that obliged the Saint to resign, adding that he accepted his resignation by granting the strong and just reasons he had alleged. As soon as the Saint received the Pope's letter, he exclaimed: "God be praised, for He has taken a mountain off my shoulders!" In his petition, he had not asked for a pension; but the Pope assigned him an annual pension of eight hundred ducats from the revenues of his bishopric. He put the affairs of his diocese in order, and, towards the end of July 1775, he retired amidst the lamentations of his flock to the house of his Order of Saint-Michel degli Pagani, saying, at the moment he climbed the steps: *Gloria Patri*: "This cross that I carry on my chest, and which was so heavy when I climbed the steps of the palace, has now become light, very light."

The Fathers of the house had furnished a room for him; but he begged that he be allowed to live like the rest of the brothers; and in everything, as much as his health would permit, he conformed to the rule of the Order, as if he were but a simple religious. He observed the same rigid poverty, to have the means to assist the poor, towards whom he always displayed the same tenderness and compassion that had made him the father of the poor of his diocese. Despite his infirmities, he preached every Saturday and every Sunday in the church of Saint-Michel and in other places in the neighborhood, for the edification of all those who heard him. Always animated by the same zeal for the salvation of his neighbor, he continued to compose and publish spiritual works for their instruction. One of these books, entitled: *The Wondrous Conduct of Divine Providence in the Sanctification of Souls through Jesus Christ*, was dedicated by him to Pope Pius VI, who wrote him a letter in which he thanked him, he said, more than if he had offered him any of those objects to which the world attaches the most value. He encouraged the missionaries of his Congregation in their labors, and joined them with his prayers; he was never happier than when he learned that the mission had succeeded well.

From November 9, 1779, he was unable to say Mass, and had to be content with receiving Holy Communion every morning, until his death. He continued to observe in every other respect the same rigor of mortification, as to the quantity and quality of food: having everything removed from his table that was not, as he said, the ordinary food of the poor, that is to say, what was not of the most insipid nature. His confessor, whom he obeyed in everything, forbade him the use of the discipline and his other habitual practices of bodily mortification; which caused him to secretly hand over to his servant the box that contained his instruments of penance, to destroy them. It pleased God that his virtue be put to the harshest tests. He was assailed by such strong temptations against the faith that he was heard throughout the house, crying out, stamping his feet on the ground, and calling Jesus and Mary to his aid: for he was a true son of the Catholic Church. His doubts troubled him even during his sleep. He had no less to suffer from the torments caused by his doubts and his scruples of conscience; from which it happened that he often sent for one of his directors at a late hour of the night; or that after having had his doubts written on a piece of paper by the lay brother who remained at his side, he sent them to his director. But from the moment he had received from them the order to keep his mind in peace, he was perfectly calm and tranquil, because he had already established as a principle, in one of his books entitled: *The Peace of Scrupulous Souls*, that in such a case, the only rule to follow was perfect obedience to a prudent and enlightened confessor: and this is indeed what he always taught as a precept as well as in practice. He submitted in everything, even in the least important points, to his confessor and to the superiors of the house where he lived; so that his whole life was a perfect model of obedience.

In the last years of his life, he was afflicted with deafness, an almost total loss of sight, and a hernia that caused him continuous pain and the most acute suffering. He could not remain lying down; and he had to be supported with pillows so that he could have a little rest. When his illnesses worsened, he replied to those who inquired about the state of his health: "Death is pressing me closely, but I have no other desire than God alone: God alone! God alone!" In bodily suffering, as in his inner pains, he was the perfect copy of the model he had already traced for the instruction of others. In his book *Conformity to the Will of God*, he had represented the patience with which he endured his own afflictions as the highest degree of virtue.

Likewise, he sought to excite in his soul the sentiments of the most lively faith in the doctrines and mysteries of our holy Church, just as he had encouraged and exhorted others to do in his works. Such were his *Truths of Faith* and the *Triumph of the Church or History of Heresies*, written against the false political and religious principles of the Deists and Materialists of the last century; his *Dogmatic Essay against the Pretended Reformers*, which is a defense of the doctrinal decisions of the holy Council of Trent; and his *Victories of the Martyrs*, whose examples he proclaimed, to encourage the faithful to remain firm and ready to die for the faith. He worked with no less energy, by his writings and his sermons, and even more by his example, to kindle in all hearts a fervent faith and piety towards Our Lord in the Holy Sacrament. Sometimes, as if, in his transports of love, he had seen Jesus with the eyes of the body, he would exclaim: "Cast your eyes upon him, see how beautiful he is, love him!" To spread this love throughout the universe, he published his *Visits to the Blessed Sacrament for Every Day of the Month*. One Good Friday, not being in a state, because of his health, to receive this precious pledge of divine love, he was so afflicted by it that he had a violent attack of fever which, despite a bloodletting he was subjected to, did not cease until he had received communion the following day. He displayed his tender affection for the Passion of Jesus in his sermons and in the three books whose titles are: *Reflections on the Passion*, *The Love of Souls*, and *Traits of Fire*. He recommended to his missionaries the practice of preaching to the people on the Passion of Jesus, as being a more effective means of producing lasting conversions among sinners than the most terrible meditations on the judgments of God: "Because," he said, "what love cannot do, fear will not be able to do either; and when a soul is attached to Jesus crucified, it no longer has reason to fear."

To propagate the love of Jesus in his holy childhood, which was one of his favorite devotions, he composed his *Novena for Christmas*. He also preached with extraordinary fervor on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose office he introduced into his diocese. We have already spoken of his tender affection towards the Blessed Virgin. One day when his director happened to express to him the confidence he had that she would appear to him at least at the hour of his death, as often she had deigned to appear to several of her servants: "Know," said Alphonsus, "that in my childhood, I often conversed with Our Lady, and that she directed me in all the affairs of the Order." His director asked him several times what she had said to him, but he never obtained any other answer than this: "She told me so many beautiful things! She told me so many beautiful things!" He declared the Blessed Virgin the protectress of his Order, and sought to encourage devotion towards her, as a powerful means of obtaining divine grace. "Reformers," he said, "represent devotion to Mary as injurious to God, they deny her the power she enjoys, and attack her powerful intercession; it is therefore our duty to show, for the interest of our listeners, how powerful she is before God, and how much He is pleased to see her honored." These sentiments of devotion towards the Blessed Virgin are found expressed in his *Glories of Mary*. After Mary, it was for her chaste spouse Saint Joseph that he felt a particular devotion, and also for Saint Teresa, whose names he placed with those of Jesus and Mary at the beginning of everything he wrote.

As proof of his profound veneration for the Pope, the visible head of the Church, the representative of Jesus Christ on earth, we need only cite his *Vindictae pro suprema Pontificis potestate adversus Justinum Febronium*, comp osed to refute t Gloires de Marie Famous work of Marian devotion. he Jansenist opinions advanced by that author. To the same end, he wrote three other treatises in Latin: the first, to prove and defend the infallibility of the Pope in his decisions on faith and morals; the second, to establish his supremacy over Ecumenical Councils as over others; in the third, which is titled: *De justa prohibitione et abolitione librorum nocuae lectionis*, he supports the right of the Pope to prohibit the reading of books dangerous to faith and morals, and refutes the opinion of those who claimed that these kinds of readings were legitimate. "I am ready," he writes in one of his letters, "to shed my blood for the defense of the Pope's supremacy; for, take away this prerogative from him, and the authority of the Church is reduced to nothing!" "Without this supreme judge," he says on another occasion, "without this supreme judge to settle controversies, the faith is lost. This judge does not exist among heretics, and this is what causes confusion and diversity of opinions among them; for everyone is his own judge."

With what firm confidence did he not exclaim: "My Jesus, you died for me; your blood is my hope and all my salvation!" On this confidence in the mercies of the Lord, he rested as on an anchor of salvation, in his temptations and his inner troubles, no less than in all the difficulties against which he had to struggle to tear himself from the world and to found and establish his Order, despite his poverty and the malice of his enemies. We dare not speak of his tender love for God. In his work entitled: *Practice of the Love of Jesus*, he highlighted this divine love, which was the mainspring of his entire existence; and, as for his charity for his neighbor, it will suffice to say, in addition to the proofs already given, that he assigned to each of the days of the week a particular class of his fellow men, for whom he ordered the members of his Order to offer their prayers to God. Every evening the bell had to ring in all their houses to invite those who lived there to recite the psalm *De profundis* for the souls in purgatory, whom the Saint, throughout the course of his life, strove to deliver by prayers, indulgences, mortifications, and especially by offering for them the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Another proof of the spirit of peace and charity with which he was filled for his fellow men is that, although he was of a naturally lively and choleric character, he knew how to restrain himself so well that reproaches and insults never tore from him a single harsh reply. His humility equaled his other virtues. When his friends spoke to him of the conversions he had effected and the good order he had established in his diocese, he interrupted them and attributed everything to God. One day also, a religious friend of his, entering his room, saw him raised in the air, his arms extended towards the images of Jesus and Mary; but no sooner had the Saint perceived him than he was covered with confusion and said to him: "What! You are here? I enjoin you not to speak of this to anyone." He likewise sought to hide a miracle he had performed, by giving the use of speech to a young man who had never been able to utter a single word. The Saint made a sign of the cross on his forehead, and gave him an image of the Blessed Virgin to kiss, ordering him to say what this image represented; the young man replied on the very spot: "The Blessed Virgin."

It was by practicing these virtues and by performing all these wonderful effects that the holy man reached the end of his earthly career. On September 13, 1786, he said to a Carmelite father who was accustomed to come and visit him every year in that month: "Father Joseph, next year you will find me dead, and we will not see each other again on this earth; pray for me to the Lord and to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows." On July 18 of the following year, he was attacked, independently of his habitual ailments, by a violent dysentery and an acute fever, so that he saw clearly that his end was near. It pleased God to deliver him from his usual scruples and anxieties of conscience, so that he could depart in peace from this world. He confessed frequently during his illness and received the Holy Eucharist every morning. His religious took turns at his side, and suggested pious thoughts and acts of virtue to him. On the 23rd of this month, it was judged necessary to administer the holy sacrament of Extreme Unction, and two days later he received Viaticum with such fervor and such an ardent desire to receive Our Lord that he repeated at every instant: "Give me the body of Jesus Christ; when is Jesus going to come? Give me Jesus Christ." At the moment when the priest brought him the Blessed Sacrament, he exclaimed in the fullness of his joy: "Come, my Jesus!" After having received it, he remained for a long time plunged in deep meditation and producing acts of thanksgiving. His religious begged him to give them his blessing and to pray to God for them; he raised his hand, and blessed them saying: "May the blessing of the almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, descend upon you and remain there forever!" Then he blessed all the houses and all the Fathers of his Congregation, the capital and his former diocese, and added with a redoubling of fervor: "I bless the Fathers of this kingdom and the States of the Pope, the king and all the generals, the ministers and the judges who will invoke the Saints and act according to justice!"

Four days before his death, he was seized with such violent convulsions, and the gangrene, of which mention has already been made, had reached such a degree of increase that he lost the use of speech; but he continued to accompany his religious in the prayers they recited for him, and opened his mouth with much joy and satisfaction to receive the Blessed Sacrament. When the holy names of Jesus and Mary were pronounced, he seemed to regain new strength; and as on the very eve of his death an image of the Blessed Virgin was presented to him, he opened his eyes and fixed them on this worthy Mother of the Son of God, whom he had always revered and loved as his mother; his face appeared all radiant with joy and love. Shortly after he fell into agony; but he remained so calm and so peaceful that the Fathers who were around him did not notice that he was near to drawing his last breath. While his religious recited fervent prayers for him and shed tears in abundance, he pressed the crucifix and the image of the Blessed Virgin strongly against his chest, and thus passed to the glory of Jesus and to the peace of the Saints, on Wednesday, August 1, 1787, at the age of ninety years, ten months and five days.

The following day, his body was buried with extraordinary pomp in the church of Saint-Michel degli Pagani, amidst the tears and lamentations of the city of Nocera degli Pagani and the entire kingdom of Naples. It pleased God to manifest the glory to which He had raised His servant through a vision with which He favored a Carmelite nun in the diocese of Melfi. She was praying in the chapel of her convent when she heard a clear and distinct voice commanding her to tell her confessor that she had seen the venerable Alphonsus de Liguori surrounded by splendor and glory. "I see no one!" she replied; but immediately after, she saw, as she herself attested twice under oath: "The Servant of God in a globe of light and splendor, to which," she said, "I see no light in this world that I can compare; all I can say is that it was like a brilliant sun reflected in the purest crystal; the holy prelate was so joyful and so beautiful that his flesh resembled the white of the finest ivory; my soul was, so to speak, stifled with joy." The Saint gave her several pieces of advice for her spiritual conduct and concluded in these terms: "My daughter, always keep yourself in purity of heart, and let your heart always be for God alone; be always resigned to Him, resigned to suffer for Him as much as it shall please Him, and to remain always on earth as if you were no longer there."

He was declared venerable by Pius VI in 1796, nine years after his death; beatified by Pius VII on September 6, 1816; and finally, Pius VIII signed the decree of his canonization in 1830, which was accomplished by Gregory XVI on May 26, 1839. Finally, by a decree of March 23, 1871, His Holiness Pope Pius IX, approving and confirming the favorable opinion issued unanimously by the cardinals of the Sacred Congre Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. gation of Rites on March 11, raised him to the rank of Doctor of the Universal Church.

He is sometimes depicted with a monstrance in his hand, before which he is praying, to mark his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. In some of his images, he is seen raised from the ground with his face divinely illuminated by brilliant rays emanating from an image of the Blessed Virgin. This recalls that one day, while preaching to the people of Amalfi on devotion to the Blessed Virgin, his face was suddenly illuminated by rays coming from an image of the Mother of God that was not far away.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS.

The body of the Saint currently rests in a magnificent reliquary under the high altar of the church of the Redemptorist Fathers of Saint-Michel degli Pagani. The Sovereign Pontiff Pius VII, out of a sentiment of veneration for this great Saint, gave the order to send to Rome the three fingers of the right hand of this illustrious doctor: the thumb, the index finger, and the ring finger. These were the Pontiff's words: "Let them come to Rome, these holy fingers that have written so well for the glory of God, the Virgin Mary, and religion."

Our Holy Father Pius IX, during a trip to the vicinity of Naples, went to venerate the precious remains of Saint Liguori and detached a rib from the body, which he shared with the Superior General of the Redemptorists in Rome; this allowed some churches to acquire in part the possession of such a rich treasure. We have seen a considerable portion of it in the chapel of Saint Genevieve, next to that of the body of that Saint, in the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris.

The parish church of Chevrières, near Pont-Sainte-Maxence and Compiègne (Oise), also possesses several portions of this rib of Saint Liguori; they are enclosed in a beautiful reliquary that is contiguous to that of Saint George, the principal patron, and both are exposed in the sanctuary.

The works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori are, on moral theology:

1° Theologia moralis; 2° Several extracts or abridgments of the Moral Theology have been made for the use Theologia moralis Major work by Alphonsus, a reference in moral theology. of pastors; the best known is Homo apostolicus, 3 vols.; 3° The Guide for Confessors; 4° Treatise on Probable Opinion.

On dogma and polemics: 1° Treatise on the Faith against Heretics, dedicated to Benedict XIV; 2° History of All Heresies, with their refutations, or Triumph of the Church; 3° Truth of the Faith, or Refutation of Materialists, Deists, and Sectarians, who deny that the Catholic Church is the only true one. He added to it a dissertation on the power of the Pope and the refutation of the book De l'Esprit by Helvétius; 4° Victories of the Martyrs, with supplements on the sacrifice of Jesus, the prayers of the Mass, exhortations addressed to a religious, instructions for students, the choice of a state of life, etc.; 5° Reflections on the Truth of Revelation and on the Passion of Jesus Christ; 6° The Admirable Ways of Providence regarding Sinners, with some supplements on the love of God, devotion to Mary, and advice on confidence; 7° Treatise on the Just Prohibition of (Bad) Books; 8° On the Immaculate Conception of Mary. These two treatises are also found in his great work of Moral Theology; 9° Refutation of some works directed against the cult rendered to Mary (also found in The Glories of Mary), and another refutation against those who dissuade from the frequent use of communion (added to the Guide for Confessors); 10° Various Theological Dissertations on the Last Judgment, Purgatory, the Antichrist, the signs that will precede the end of the world, the resurrection, the situation of the just and the damned, etc.; 11° The Fidelity of Vassals towards God is a certain sign of their submission towards their princes; 12° Vindictæ contra Febranium, where he proves the attachment he vowed to the Catholic Church and the Holy See; 13° Sermons for Sundays and Feast Days, with a supplement on preaching, missions, and vocation; 14° Collection of preachings and instructions.

His devotional works are: 1° Selva, or Collection of materials, discourses, and instructions for ecclesiastical retreats; 2° On Negligence in Attending Holy Mass and Divine Service; 3° Ceremonies of the Mass; 4° Translation of the Psalms, highly esteemed; 5° Instruction to the People on the Precepts of the Decalogue; 6° The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, or the Holy Nun; 7° Preparation for Death; 8° The Way of Salvation; 9° Meditations on the Eternal Truths; 10° Spiritual Exercises for Eight Days; 11° Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ; 12° Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin; 13° Opuscula on communion, cases of conscience, conversation with God, the will of God, prayer, the Passion of Jesus Christ, etc.; 14° The Glories of Mary; 15° Christmas Novena, with sermons and meditations; 16° Novena of the Sacred Heart and for Saint Joseph; 17° Novena for the Deceased; 18° On the Warnings of Providence in Public Calamities; 19° Collection of letters.

Most of these works have been translated and reprinted in France. The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ has been especially appreciated by pious souls, and editions of this excellent work are very numerous. The Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, which enjoy such a justly acquired reputation, have been widespread there for a long time. It was Father Duró, a Jesuit from Lorraine, who first published a translation of them. The complete works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori were printed in Paris (1834), in 20 vols. in-8° and 30 vols. in-12, with a French translation of the writings composed in Italian. A new edition is currently appearing with a translation by the Rev. Fr. Dujardin, in Tournai, at Casterman (1858).

Life of the Saint, by Cardinal Wiseman. — Cf. Esprit des Saints, by Abbé Grimes.