Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Alphonsus Liguori was born near Naples in 1696 into a noble family and took a doctorate in law at sixteen. After losing an important case in 1723, through an oversight, he left the law, and was ordained a priest in 1726. He preached among the poor, and in 1732 at Scala he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, to preach missions in the villages.

He wrote over a hundred books, among them a Moral Theology that guided confessors for generations and The Glories of Mary, and the Christmas song “Tu scendi dalle stelle.” From 1762 to 1775 he was bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti. In old age he saw his congregation divided. He died at Pagani on 1 August 1787, aged ninety, and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1871.