Alphonsus Maria de' Ligouri was born in Marianella near Naples, Italy, on 27 September 1696 to Giuseppe Ligouri, a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, and his wife Anna Maria Caterina Cavalieri. He was baptised two days later as Alphonsus Maria Antonio Giovanni Damiano Michele Gaspari de' Ligouri. His family was of noble origin.
As a young man he cared for the sick in the public hospitals and devoted his spare time to prayer in churches. In obedience to his father he became a lawyer, studying law at the University of Naples. He graduated with doctorates in both civil and canon law at the age of 16. Alphonsus was successful in his legal career but after losing an important case, and hearing an interior voice saying “leave the world and give yourself to me” he abandoned his profession.
Alphonus renounced his right of inheritance as the oldest son (primogeniture) and became a priest in 1726 at the age of 30. Zealous against vice, he procured the conversions of many sinners. He took particular pity on the poor and those living in the country. In 1732 Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer to preach the Gospel to them. To avoid any distractions from this mission he took a perpetual vow never to waste any time. Alphonsus was constant in contemplating the Passion of Christ and the Holy Eucharist and was outstanding in his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Alphonsus wrote many books of devotion and religious instruction to gain souls for Christ. He consistently refused ecclesiastical honour but was forced by Rome to accept the episcopal chair of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762. He was generous to the poor and brought religious sisters back to a more perfect form of life. Serious chronic illnesses forced him to resign his office as bishop and return to his disciples. By May 1775 he was blind, deaf and full of other infirmities.
Alphonsus died on 1 August 1787 at the age of 90. He was beatified in 1816 by Pope Pius VII and canonised in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI. In 1949 the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy (Alphonsianum) for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. It is situated in Rome and in 1960 became part of the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University. Pope Pius IX declared Alphonsus a Doctor of the Universal Church and Pope Pius XII designated him the heavenly patron of all confessors and moralists.
