ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 31st of October
WELCOME!
SAINT ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ, JESUIT
.jpg)
Alphonsus Rodriguez lived a whole life before entering the Society of Jesus. He was a husband, a father, a businessman. But when his family died and his business collapsed, his entire life was upended.
Alphonsus had been in comfortable circumstances, born in 1533 as the son of a wool merchant. When Peter Faber, one of the original Jesuits, visited the city to preach, the Rodriguez family provided hospitality to the Jesuit. Faber prepared the young Rodriguez for his First Communion.
At the age of twelve, Alphonsus was sent to the new Jesuit college at Alcala, but left two years later to help his mother run the family business after his father died. At the age of 26, he married Maria Suarez, a woman of his own station, with whom he had three children. At the age of 31, she had died as did two of their children. From then on, Alphonsus began a life of serious prayer and mortification, separated from the world around him. On the death of his third child, his thoughts turned to life in some religious order.
Accepted as a Jesuit lay brother, he eventually made his perpetual vows in 1585 at the age of 54, while working as a porter. Through prayer, patience, and quiet counsel, he sanctified ordinary work and showed that holiness flourishes in hidden service.
Alphonsus remained a porter for 46 years at the recently founded Jesuit college on Mallorca, relating that each time the bell rang, he looked at the door and envisioned that it was God who was standing outside, seeking admittance. Among the distinguished Jesuits who came under his influence was Saint Peter Claver, who lived with him for some time at Mallorca, and who followed his advice in asking for the missions of South America.
The bodily mortifications which he imposed on himself were extreme, his obedience absolute, and his absorption in spiritual things continual. His Jesuit superiors were very edified by the good work he was doing as a porter among the townspeople.
Alphonsus was deeply devoted to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially to the Immaculate Conception. He would produce copies of the complete text of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the private recitation of people who asked. He reportedly was favoured with mystical graces, ecstasies and visions of our Lord, our Lady and the saints.
When he reached his eighties, he became very frail, and in his last months his memory began to fail. Saint Alphonsus went to his eternal reward on October 31, 1617.
Sources: https://catholicexchange.com/saint-of-the-day/st-alphonsus-rodriguez/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonsus_Rodriguez - https://www.jesuits.org/stories/heroes-of-the-ignatian-tradition-alphonsus-rodriguez/
PRAYER:
May the intercession of Saint Alphonsus commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment