The Padrnos Family

Who was St. Alphonsus Liguori?

Known for

love of learning and the arts, down-to-earth preaching, founding the Redemptorist missionary order, devotion to Mary and the Blessed Sacrament, the qualities of humility and perseverance

Lived

1696-1787, Naples, Italy

Feast Day

August 1

Patronage

lawyers, arthritis, confessors, moral theologians

Notable Quotes

  • “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
  • “The past is no longer yours; the future is not yet in your power. You have only the present wherein to do good.”
  • “Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day.”
  • “Your God is ever beside you – indeed, He is even within you.”
  • “Perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”
  • “When we see a beautiful object, a beautiful garden, or a beautiful flower, let us think that there we behold a ray of the infinite beauty of God, who has given existence to that object.”

Additional Facts

  • He was a successful lawyer before becoming a priest, as well as an accomplished writer, artist, poet, and musician.
  • Not just some boring theologian, St. Alphonsus put his faith in action. He abandoned a life of privilege to care for the poor and marginalized of Naples and teach them the basics of the Faith.
  • Arthritis bent his head into his chest, a deformity he suffered for his last twenty years.
  • He composed a collection of famous mediations on the Stations of the Cross, still in use today.
  • He is one of the Doctors of the Church, a title given to recognize the great teachers of the Catholic faith.

Recommended Reading & Listening by St. Alphonsus