The Glories Of Mary: Saint Alphonsus de Liguori
Think of what the saints have done for their neighbor because they loved God. But what saint’s love for God can match Mary’s love? She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence than all the Saints and angels ever loved Him or will love Him. Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother. —Â St. Alphonsus de Liguori.
Born in Italy from a distinguished family in 1696, Alphonsus became a lawyer but soon abandoned is promising career to become a priest against his father’s wishes. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known also as the Redemptorists. By order of the pope, Alphonsus became bishop of San’t Agata de’Goti in 1762. Throughout his long life, Saint Alphonsus wrote a prodigious number of ascetical, theological and historical works until his death in 1787. Pope Gregory XVI canonized him in 1839 and Blessed Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1871.
