St. Alphonsus Liguori: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers

Feast day: August 1 (Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

Patron of: Confessors and moral theologians.

About St. Alphonsus Liguori

St. Alphonsus Liguori was born near Naples in 1696 into a noble family. A brilliant student, he earned doctorates in civil and canon law at sixteen and became a successful lawyer. After losing an important case through an oversight, he felt the emptiness of worldly success, and while visiting the sick in a hospital he heard an inner call to leave the world. He laid his sword on the altar of Our Lady of Ransom and was ordained a priest in 1726.

Alphonsus preached missions to the poor in the countryside around Naples, and in 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, to serve the most abandoned souls. He wrote more than a hundred works, among them The Glories of Mary, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and the much-loved Stations of the Cross prayed in countless parishes. His moral theology balanced the demands of the law with mercy for the penitent. He served as bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti, suffered greatly in old age, and died in 1787. Pius XII named him patron of confessors and moral theologians in 1950.

Prayers to St. Alphonsus Liguori on Daily Catholic Prayers

• Opening Prayer for the Stations of the Cross

• Prayer to St. Teresa of Ávila for Divine Love (by St. Alphonsus Liguori)

• Spiritual Communion

• Station 10: Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

• Station 11: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

• Station 12: Jesus Dies on the Cross

• Station 13: Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross

• Station 14: Jesus Is Placed in the Sepulcher

• Station 1: Jesus Is Condemned to Death

• Station 2: Jesus Carries His Cross

• Station 3: Jesus Falls the First Time

• Station 4: Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother

• Station 5: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus to Carry the Cross

• Station 6: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

• Station 7: Jesus Falls the Second Time

• Station 8: Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

• Station 9: Jesus Falls the Third Time

• Visit to the Blessed Sacrament Prayer

Learn more: “St. Alphonsus Liguori” in the Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)

Browse every saint in our Catalog of Saints A–Z.

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