St Alphonsus Liguori

Zeal was once regarded as a virtue. Now, when it is thought of at all (one hardly experiences it, it seems), it is looked upon almost as a vice—so that the word zealot has become, by means of a false etymology, an insult. What people who use words like this would have made of a titanic figure such as St Paul, or St Francis Xavier, or St Ignatius Loyola, or St Francis de Sales, or St Alphonsus Liguori, I dread to think. Do the insulters have any convictions of their own? Do they have any passion? I don’t know. I would have thought most people did. But since so many people in this our time seem to think that all opinions are equal—they do not seem to acknowledge the notion of a conviction, still less of a conscience of reality—I cannot help but doubt it.
St Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de’ Liguori is one of the greatest of the Saints. He is a Doctor of the Church, and he has the title Doctor Zelantissimus. This title is a compliment. Those who think that zeal is an evil are at best unintelligent. Look at the achievements of St Francis de Sales, or St Francis Xavier! Can anybody seriously maintain that the fruits of their zeal had an evil origin? I fear that some people can.
St Alphonsus was born in 1696, and died in 1787. In his very long life he achieved so much that anyone may look upon his achievement and tremble. If the historians of the future are as stupid as certain historians of recent centuries, no doubt they will come to deny that St Alphonsus did all that he in fact did, and will concoct fairytales of composite authorship, pseudonyms, and mythology. Let us hope that they are not so.
I shall write what I can remember about St Alphonsus. His father was a particularly irascible man; and I should not be surprised if the scruples with which the Saint was tormented throughout his life had his source in his earthly father: for it is very difficult not to project certain aspects of one’s earthly father onto one’s Heavenly Father, at least subconsciously. St Alphonsus would not have done this consciously. The Saint’s father was also "passionately fond of music,"[1] and so St Alphonsus became proficient on the harpsichord, practising for three hours a day. He obtained two doctorates (in Canon and Civil Law) at the age of sixteen, when he began to practise as a lawyer. He never appeared in court without having previously heard Mass. It is said—I do not know whether it is true or false—that he never lost a case, until his very last. The story is that he misinterpreted a document—he misread it, so that he understood it to mean the exact opposite of what it actually said: a mistake very easy to make. He was most upset, I think because he feared that people would have attributed his error to malice and fraud instead of a mere human error. He exclaimed, “World, I know you now! Courts, you shall never see me more!”
He was about thirty. Against the wishes of his father (who emitted a noise almost like a scream when he saw his son for the first time in clerical dress) he was ordained priest; fortunately the Saint’s mother managed to reconcile them after a time. It may have been when the Saint’s father first heard him preach that he finally accepted his son’s vocation. On various occasions St Alphonsus’s parents (it may have been his father) had endeavoured to get him to marry various women; on one occasion St Alphonsus disdained even to look at his proposed spouse: I believe they were playing the harpsichord together, probably at his father’s request. I believe there were three women (on separate occasions!) the Saints’ father wanted him to marry: but it was not to be. The Saint was meant to be a priest, and he knew it: and for three days he did not eat. He shut himself in his room for three days: he did not eat, and spoke to no one. His mother may have made some attempt to get him to eat an apple: whether this attempt succeeded I do not remember. It was the hour for his endurance of the anguish of the agony.
The Saint’s devotional life was exceptional. He had great devotion to the Eucharist, and to Our Blessed Mother. He heard Mass every day, confessed and communicated every Saturday; he fasted on bread and water every Saturday in honour of Our Lady; he said not only the Divine Office, but also the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, every day; his preparation and thanksgiving for Mass, as well as his offering up of the Sacrifice, lasted most of the morning; he said the Angelus (or Regina Cæli) each day, morning, noon, and evening—he would kneel in the street at the Angelus bell. He made a visit to the Blessed Sacrament every evening.
His mortifications were extreme—in youth, I think he came near to suffering death on account of excess in this matter: an effective cure for pride. He was more devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, perhaps than any man before or since, except Her own family, and perhaps St Louis de Montfort. St Alphonsus "slept the very minimum required for human existence." [2]
The Saint wrote book after book after book, in his spare half-hours. His most famous work is Le Glorie di Maria, known in English, of course, as The Glories of Mary. His next most important work is perhaps Theologia Moralis, a vast multi-volume work that revolutionized Catholic moral theology. St Alphonsus himself appears to have read every important Catholic book ever produced. He spent vast amounts of time in prayer and in study. He ate no more than he needed to. He also made several vows during his life—those that spring immediately to mind are those not to drink wine at table, to say a 15-decade Rosary every day, and what Tannoja called “that appalling vow:” never deliberately to waste a moment of time. He kept that vow, and not a moment of his life was wasted. How much time we waste! But to observe the life of this man is to see what it is to use all the time that is given to us as it is meant to be used. What would the world not be if everyone used the time given them as they were meant to use it!
St Alphonsus wrote much, and much has been written about him. The more you read him, and the more you read about him, the better you get to know him: and he is a character who can really be known. I think he deserves to be better known than he is.

1st August, 2010

[1] Catholic Encyclopedia.
[2] Tannoja's Life of St Alphonsus.