29 Facts About Alphonsus Liguori

1.

Alphonsus Liguori, CSsR, sometimes called Alphonsus Maria de Liguori or Saint Alphonsus Liguori, was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher, and theologian.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,407
2.

Alphonsus Liguori was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,408
3.

Alphonsus Liguori was the eldest of seven children of Giuseppe Liguori, a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, and Anna Maria Caterina Cavalieri.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,409
4.

Alphonsus Liguori learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,410
5.

Alphonsus Liguori was taught by tutors before entering the University of Naples, where he graduated with doctorates in civil and canon law at 16.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,411
6.

Alphonsus Liguori remarked later that he was so small at the time that he was almost buried in his doctor's gown and that all the spectators laughed.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,412
7.

Alphonsus Liguori was thinking of leaving the profession and wrote to someone, "My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death".

FactSnippet No. 1,136,413
8.

Alphonsus Liguori's father opposed the plan, but after two months, he and his father compromised: he would study for the priesthood, but not as an Oratorian, and would live at home.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,414
9.

Alphonsus Liguori lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and the marginalized youth of Naples.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,415
10.

Alphonsus Liguori became very popular because of his plain and simple preaching.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,416
11.

Alphonsus Liguori said: "I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand".

FactSnippet No. 1,136,417
12.

Alphonsus Liguori founded the Evening Chapels, which were managed by the young people themselves.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,418
13.

Alphonsus Liguori's sermons were very effective at converting those who had been alienated from their faith.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,419
14.

Alphonsus Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,420
15.

In 1729, Alphonsus Liguori left his family home and took up residence in the Chinese Institute in Naples.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,421
16.

In 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, Alphonsus Liguori said he had a vision of the Virgin Mother in the appearance of a young girl of 13 or 14, wearing a white veil.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,422
17.

Alphonsus Liguori founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,423
18.

Alphonsus Liguori is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,424
19.

In 1732, while he was staying at the Convent of the Consolation, one of his order's houses in the small city of Deliceto in the province of Foggia in Southeastern Italy, Alphonsus Liguori wrote the Italian carol "Tu scendi dalle stelle" in the musical style of a pastorale.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,425
20.

Alphonsus Liguori was consecrated Bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,426
21.

Alphonsus Liguori tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,427
22.

Alphonsus Liguori wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,428
23.

Alphonsus Liguori first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,429
24.

Alphonsus Liguori suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,430
25.

Alphonsus Liguori was beatified on 15 September 1816 by Pope Pius VII and canonized on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,431
26.

Alphonsus Liguori was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians by Pope Pius XII on 26 April 1950, who subsequently wrote of him in the encyclical Haurietis aquas.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,432
27.

Alphonsus Liguori was proficient in the arts, his parents having had him trained by various masters, and he was a musician, painter, poet and author at the same time.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,433
28.

Alphonsus Liguori's masterpiece was The Moral Theology, which was approved by the Pope himself and was born of Liguori's pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,434
29.

Alphonsus Liguori is credited with the position of Aequiprobabilism, which avoided Jansenist rigorism as well as laxism and simple probabilism.

FactSnippet No. 1,136,435