Alphonsus Maria de Liguori was born in 1696 at Marianella near Naples, the son of a naval officer. A brilliant student, he took his doctorate in law at sixteen and practised at the Naples bar, but after losing an important case in 1723 he left the law to give himself to God. He was ordained priest in 1726 and spent years preaching to the poor of the city and the countryside.
In 1732, at Scala, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, to preach missions in neglected villages. His Moral Theology sought a middle way for confessors between rigour and laxity, and his many devotional books, written in plain Italian, were read across the Catholic world. From 1762 to 1775 he was bishop of Sant'Agata de' Goti. Old, ill and grieved by divisions in his congregation, he died at Pagani in 1787; he was canonised in 1839.
Alphonsus Liguori in the library (7 works)
- Las glorias de María — 1750; traducción de 1868 · en español
Las meditaciones de san Alfonso sobre la Salve y las fiestas de María. - Preparación para la muerte — 1758; traducción de 1867 · en español
Consideraciones sobre las verdades eternas para la conversión y una vida santa. - Visitas al Santísimo Sacramento — 1745; traducción de 1803 · en español
Una visita a Cristo en el Santísimo Sacramento para cada día del mes. - Alphonsus Liguori: The Glories of Mary — 1750; translation 1852
Alphonsus's meditations on the Salve Regina and the feasts of Mary, the most printed Marian book of modern times. - Alphonsus Liguori: Preparation for Death — 1758; translation 1893 edition
Considerations on the eternal truths — death, judgment, heaven and hell — for conversion and a holy life. - Alphonsus Liguori: The Way of Salvation and of Perfection — 1767; translation 1886
Short daily meditations on salvation and on growing in the love of God. - Alphonsus Liguori: Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament — 1745; translation 1870
A visit to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament for every day of the month.