Search Catholic Online. Continue reading about Sts. Adolph Kolping St. More Saints Search Search Saints. Trending Saints: St. Josaphat of Polotsk St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Never Miss any Updates! Eventually overwhelmed by the corruption in the justice system, Alphonsus felt himself destined for a higher calling, and quit practicing law to study Scripture in About three years later, he was ordained, and began ministering to some of the most indigent and crime-ridden districts in Naples.
He educated the people in these districts in the truths of Scripture, encouraging them to pray and live moral lives. Having trained the laity sufficiently to carry on his work in the capital, Alphonsus ventured elsewhere to continue his ministry of spiritual education. In the rural hinterlands outside Naples, he discovered pagan people who were severely uneducated, living in material and spiritual poverty. Despite his formidable intellect, Alphonsus was by no means inaccessible in his teaching and writing; he expressed himself clearly and understandably.
His direct communication, along with his empathy, made those he ministered to highly receptive to his teachings, resulting in the spiritual transformation of countless lives. The Redemptorists in the Papal States then put themselves under the pope, who withdrew those in Naples from the jurisdiction of Alphonsus.
It was only after his death that the branches were united. At 71, Alphonsus was afflicted with rheumatic pains which left incurable bending of his neck. Until it was straightened a little, the pressure of his chin caused a raw wound on his chest.
Alphonsus is best known for his moral theology, but he also wrote well in the field of spiritual and dogmatic theology. His Glories of Mary is one of the great works on that subject, and his book Visits to the Blessed Sacrament went through 40 editions in his lifetime, greatly influencing the practice of this devotion in the Church.
Saint Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a practical model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure.
Alphonsus suffered all these things. He is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.
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