St. Alphonsus Liguori
Feast 08-01 · Canonized 1839
Patron of
About
Alphonsus Liguori was born near Naples, Italy, in 1696. A brilliant lawyer, he abandoned the bar at twenty-seven after losing an important case through a legal oversight, and was ordained a priest in 1726.
In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, to preach missions to the poor in the countryside around Naples. He became a bishop in 1762 and wrote more than a hundred works, above all on moral theology, where he steered a middle course between rigorism and laxity.
He died in 1787 and was canonized in 1839, then declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871. He is venerated as a patron of confessors, moral theologians, and those with scruples.
Suggested prayer
O God, who called Alphonsus from the bar to preach Your mercy to the poor, grant through his intercession that confessors may lead souls to Your gentle mercy and that those burdened by scruples may find peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.