In the Society of the Most Holy Redeemer we especially remember on this date of the year…
– 1787: The death of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Italian: Alfonso Maria Antonio Giovanni Francesco Cosimo Damiano Michelangelo Gasparo de Liguori) in Pagani, Campania, Kingdom of Naples.
After having enlightened the world with the light of his doctrine and given his life especially for the most abandoned ones, at the sound of the mid-day Angelus, our Beloved Father St. Alphonsus passed to the Lord in Pagani, Italy, at the age of 90 years, (and ten months, and five days), as it was prophesized by St. Francis Giralomo. He lay dying without convulsions or anguish, as if in a sweet dream. St. Clement Mary Hofbauer and Fr. Thaddeus Hübl would say that at that hour they heard a strange tapping of a stick on the table.
Born in Marianella, near Naples, Italy, September 27, 1696; ordained in Naples, December 21, 1726. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in Scala, November 9, 1732; elected superior general and rector major, May 6, 1743; consecrated bishop, June 20, 1762; resigned his bishopric, July 17, 1775. He was beatified on September 15, 1816; canonized, May 26, 1839; declared “Doctor of the Church,” March 23, 1871; and made patron of confessors and moralists, April 26, 1950. His body is enshrined at Pagani.
