[Rank]
St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4a

[Rule]
vide C4a;mtv
9 lectiones
CPapaM=Stephen;

[Name]
Alphonsus Mary

[Oratio]
O God, Who didst enkindle in thy Blessed Confessor and Bishop Alphonsus Mary a burning love of souls, and by him didst make thy Church the Mother of a new family, we pray thee to give us such strength that, taught by his wholesome doctrine and nerved by his example, we also may in the end happily attain unto thee.
$Per Dominum.

[Commemoratio]
!Commemoration of St. Stephen, Pope and Martyr
@Commune/C2:Oratio1 Gregem

[Lectio4]
Alphonsus Mary de' Liguori was born of a noble family, at (Marianella, near) Naples, (on the 26th day of September, in the year of salvation 1696.) From his earliest days he gave no dark signs of holiness. When he was but a babe, his parents carried him to holy Francis de Hieronymo, of the Society of Jesus, and holy Francis, after long prayer, said that the child would live to ninety years of age, that he would become a Bishop, and that he would be a great blessing to the Church. From his childhood, he had a strong distaste to games, and by his entreaty and example, induced the noble pages (of the Court, among whom he served,) to conduct themselves with Christian decency. As a young man, he became a member of diverse godly guilds, and made it among his delights to nurse the sick in the hospitals, to spend much time in prayer in the Churches, and often to receive the Holy Sacraments. With his godliness he so joined zeal for learning, that when he was scarcely sixteen years of age he took degrees in Canon and Civil law in the University of Naples. In obedience to the wish of his father, he adopted the profession of an advocate, in which he gained great credit, but, finding dangers in the practice of the law, he entirely gave it up. He declined a very brilliant marriage which was proposed to him by his father, resigned his family inheritance as an eldest son, hung up his sword at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, styled of Ransom, and surrendered himself altogether to the service of God. He became a Priest, (in 1726,) and made so zealous an onslaught on sin, running hither and thither in the office of an Apostle, that he accomplished the conversion of multitudes of lost creatures. The poor and the country-people most chiefly roused his compassion, and (in 1742) he founded the Congregation of Priests called that of the Most Holy Redeemer, to follow the Redeemer's footsteps by preaching the Gospel to the poor throughout the fields, villages, and hamlets.

[Lectio5]
That he might not turn aside from his work, he bound him- self by a vow never to lose any time. Inflamed with the love of souls, he toiled to gain them to Christ and to amend their lives, not only by preaching of the word of God, but also by writings full of holy learning and godliness. It is a marvel how many hatreds he stilled, and how many backsliders he led again into the paths of salvation. He was eminently devoted to the Mother of God, published a book on her glories, and when he was earnestly speaking thereof in his sermons, it happened more than once that all the people openly saw a strange brightness fall upon him from her image, till all his countenance shone, and he was rapt in an ecstasy. The sufferings of the Lord and the Holy Eucharist were ever before his eyes, and to them he spread abroad a wonderful love. When he was praying before the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament, or celebrating the Holy Liturgy, which he never failed to do every day, through the seraphic violence of his love, he wept burning tears, or shook with strange movements, or became altogether beside himself. He joined a wonderful innocence and purity, which he never polluted by the stain of deadly sin, to a wonderful depth of repentance, and chastised his body with hunger, iron chains, hair-cloth, and scourgings even to blood-shedding. Among all these things he was remarkable for the gift of prophecy, the power of seeing into the hearts of men, the ability to be in more places than one at the same time, and other miracles.

[Lectio6]
But firmly and perseveringly refused all high places in the Church which were offered him, but (in 1762) Pope Clement XIII. absolutely commanded him to take the Bishopric of the Church of Santa Agata de' Goti. On becoming a Bishop, the only change which he made in the hardness of his life was that of his outer raiment. There remained, too, the same simplicity of meats, the same strong zeal for Christian discipline, the same determined will to put down sin and keep out false doctrines, and the same earnestness in all the duties of a shepherd of souls. In his tenderness to the poor, he spent among them all the revenues of his Church, and in a year of famine sold the furniture of his own house to feed his starving people. He was all things to all men and brought nuns to lead a more perfect life, while he saw to it that a monastery was opened for nuns attached to his own Congregation. On account of grievous and continual sickness, he resigned his Bishopric, and poor as when he had left them, poor he returned among his disciples. On the 1st day of August, in the year 1787, he peacefully died at Noceradei - Pagani, amid the tears of his followers. He was then ninety years of age his body was worn out with old age and hard work, and with chronic gout, and other painful maladies, but the freshness of his mind never failed to the last, in talking and writing on heavenly things. In the year 1816 Pope Pius VII., finding him famous on account of his good works and miracles, enrolled his name among those of the Blessed. God still glorified him by new signs and wonders, and on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1839, Gregory XVI., with solemn pomp, numbered him among the Saints of the Church. Lastly, Pope Pius IX., in accordance with a Resolution of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, gave him the title of Doctor of the Universal Church.

[Lectio94]
Born at Naples of noble parents, Alphonsus Mary Liguori as very young man took delight in caring for the sick in the public hospitals and in devoting his spare time to prayer in churches. In obedience to his father he became a lawyer; but when he had experienced the dangers of this kind of career, he abandoned the profession. He renounced his right of inheritance as oldest son and became a priest, attacking vice with such zeal that he obtained the conversions of a great number of sinners. He took special pity on the poor and those living in rural districts and founded the Congregation of Priests of the Most Holy Redeemer to preach the Gospel to them. Lest anything should turn him from his determination, he bound himself by a perpetual vow never to waste any time. Constant in contemplating the Passion of the Lord and the holy Eucharist, he was outstanding in his devotion to the holy Mother of God, being more than once refreshed by signs of her heavenly protection. He wrote many books of religious instruction and of devotion by which he strove to gain souls for Christ. He consistently refused the ecclesiastical honours offered to him, but was compelled by the Holy See to accept the Bishopric of the Church of Santa Agata dei Goti, where he was generous to the poor and made himself all things to all men. He also brought nuns back to a more perfect form of life. Serious chronic illnessses led him to resign the episcopal office and return to his disciples. Finally, at the age of ninety years, radiant with innocence of life and penance, he died a most peaceful death in the year 1787. Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the universal Church, and Pius XII established him as the heavenly patron before God of all confessors and moral theologians.
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[Lectio7]
@Commune/C1a:Lectio7

[Lectio8]
@Commune/C1a:Lectio8

[Lectio93]
!Commemoration of St. Stephen, Pope and Martyr
This Stephen was a Roman, and exercised the Popedom in the reign of the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. It was his ordinance which forbade Priests and Deacons ever to use their hallowed garments except in the Church. He forbade a re-baptism of such as had been baptized by heretics, writing to St. Cyprian in these words: Let us have no innovations, but only what hath been handed down unto us. He turned many to Christ, and, among them, the Tribune Olympius, with his wife Exuperia, and his son Theodulus, and the Tribune Nemesius, to whose blind daughter he had given sight, along with all his household. All these were martyrs for Jesus Christ. When the persecution of the Emperors was waxing dreader and more dread, Stephen gathered together the clergy, and exhorted them to be brave in lifting up their testimony, and himself celebrated Masses and Councils in the Catacombs. He was caught by some unbelievers, and haled to the temple of Mars, to do sacrifice to that idol, but he boldly said he would never pay to devils an honour which it behoved to give to God only. As he spake these words an earthquake made the image of Mars to fall down, and all the temple to tremble. All they that held Stephen fled, and the Pope went back to his own people in the cemetery of Lucina. He there delivered to them a discourse full of the Word of God, and gave them the Communion of the Sacrament of the Body of Christ. While he was finishing the Mass, the soldiers of the Emperor again brake in upon them, and his head was cut off as he sat in his chair. The reliques of the Martyr, along with the chair stained with his blood, were buried by the clergy in the cemetery of Callistus, upon the 2nd day of August, (in the year of our Lord 257.) He lived as Pope three years, three months, and twenty two days. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and in them ordained six Priests, five Deacons, and three Bishops.
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