The zeal of St Alphonsus

By Fr Eugene Grimm CSSR   |   30 July 2025

For the feast of St Alponsus, 2 August.

Extract from The Ascetical works of St Alphonsus Liguori, volume 13: The Holy Mass

From his childhood [St Alphonsus] was admired for the tender devotion with which he attended Mass, received Communion, or spent his time in adoring the Blessed Sacrament. This virtue only grew and became more perfect as he advanced in age. Even in the midst of the world, notwithstanding the occupations and the cares of the profession which he at first embraced, he went every day to visit his dear Lord exposed in one of the churches of Naples, and there on his knees and immovable, he spent long hours before the altar, contemplating the object of his affection with so humble and so recollected an attitude, that he appeared to be out of himself; all persons that saw him were profoundly edified. Such piety was to receive its reward; for thus we read in his writings: 

“I feel myself bound, at least out of gratitude to my Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, to declare that by means of this devotion of visiting the Most Blessed Sacrament, which I practised, though with so much tepidity and in so imperfect a manner, I abandoned the world, in which, unfortunately, I lived until six-and-twenty years of age.”

Such were his dispositions in the world; but one cannot imagine with what respect, with what care, with what dignity and with what fervour he celebrated the holy mysteries when he had the happiness of ascending the altar as a priest of the Most High, to consecrate and to hold in his hands the Body and the Blood of his well-beloved Jesus, and to be nourished every day with this heavenly food. Moreover, we can hardly picture to ourselves what was his preparation for an act of which he had so sublime an idea, and what was his conversation with his God living in him after Communion and during his long thanksgiving.

He never failed to celebrate Mass every day, unless he was obliged by an absolute necessity to omit doing so; in this case it was to him a very great privation. One day, at Naples, while he was going to say Mass in a church that was far distant, he was seized with violent cramps in the stomach, so that he was not able to go any farther. His companion advised him to enter some house and to use a remedy; but he answered: “I would rather walk ten more miles in order not to be deprived of the privilege of saying Mass.” Fortunately he recovered from his illness, and was able to satisfy his devotion. He had not the same consolation on another occasion, when he was at St Agatha. Pressed by an accumulation of work, he laboured every evening till a very advanced hour, and instead of taking supper he contented himself with taking a glass of water before going to bed. Once, however, he noticed that he had drunk the water a little after midnight. Being quite annoyed by this mishap, he at once sent for his servant and had him to bring him different watches to find out the exact time; but finding that they all agreed, he had to make up his mind to do without saying Mass as well as without receiving Communion, which was his resource whenever he was too ill to celebrate Mass. This accident was the cause of great affliction to him for several days.

When he was at the altar one had more than one occasion to admire the marvellous effects of his fervour, without speaking of the trembling, the palpitation, the extraordinary movements that he felt. At Modugno, in February, 1745, he was seen after the Consecration raised in the air at the height of several feet. At another time, at Nocera, while he was reciting the psalm Judica me, he all of a sudden stopped. A Father who was serving his Mass, thinking that his memory had failed him, without looking at him suggested several times the words to him; but all to no purpose: then raising his eyes, he saw the saint in an ecstasy.

At the altar he resembled an angel rather than a human being; after Communion his countenance appeared transformed, and all on fire.

He made it a rule for the priests of his religious Institute to celebrate Mass every day, and to employ in saying it half an hour, after having devoutly prepared themselves; they had then to make at least half an hour’s thanksgiving. He permitted the shortening of the time of thanksgiving only in case of necessity, as when many confessions had to be heard, and there were only a few confessors; they had, however, to make at least a quarter of an hour’s thanksgiving. He required that on retreat days, besides the half-hour’s ordinary meditation, the proximate preparation for Mass should last at least half an hour, and the thanksgiving a whole hour. He enjoined upon the members of his Institute the exact observance of the ceremonies of Mass, and in order that they might not fail in this, he wished them carefully to study the Rubrics; for this purpose he established a special conference for the exercise of the Rubrics to be held on the first Monday of every month.

Obliged by obedience to assume the office of bishop in 1762, when he was sixty-six years of age, and bowed down by the weight of innumerable labours and grave infirmities, he at once made exact inquiries regarding the manner in which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated in his diocese; he himself examined the priests on the subject about which he had his serious doubts, and he did not hesitate to suspend from the celebration of Mass those whom he found deficient in this respect, until they had duly corrected themselves. He moreover watched specially over the manner in which the churches were kept. In the course of his first pastoral visit he fell dangerously ill, received Extreme Unction, and hovered for several weeks between life and death. When he was hardly convalescent and still bedridden, an altar was erected in his room, where every day Mass was said, during which he communicated; he would then send for the priests whom he wished to examine, and made them go through the exercises of the Rubrics in his presence. As for priests newly ordained, he did not grant them permission to say Mass till he became certain that they were perfectly able to observe all the prescribed ceremonies. He used to say: “When a man has once become a cripple there is no longer any remedy for him.” He earnestly recommended to them never to neglect to make a suitable preparation and thanksgiving, saying: 

“By the acts that precede the Mass, especially by the act of contrition, one empties and purifies the vessel of one’s heart, and by those acts that follow Mass one fills this vessel with graces and heavenly gifts.” 

Such conduct did not fail to produce happy effects in his diocese, the state of which left much to be desired; thenceforward priests were seen carefully applying themselves to the celebration of Mass in an irreproachable and edifying manner.

In 1768, at the age of seventy-two, the holy bishop had to submit to a very severe trial. After a long and painful attack of rheumatism his neck became twisted and his head bent, so that his chin rested on his breast; he could not hold up his head. He had to resign himself to pass in this state the rest of his life, which was yet to last nineteen years. He had already, in 1765, asked in vain Pope Clement XIII to be freed from his charge; he renewed his request, but without success. In the midst of all his sufferings he did not forget his flock. Having recovered little by little some strength, he again occupied himself with the affairs of his diocese and of his Congregation; he published more important books, and even entered the pulpit to preach. He, however, believed that he was obliged to give up saying Mass, because he was not able to raise his head to take the precious blood: this was a source of the greatest grief to him.

He had endured this privation for two years, when in a conversation with an Augustinian priest he began to speak of that which so sensibly afflicted his pious soul. The Father, however, remarked to him that on account of his infirmity he could be dispensed at the altar from performing certain ceremonies that were not essential, and that he could sit down in such a way as to make it convenient for him to take the Precious Blood. This advice was to him a ray of light that filled his heart with joy. He made the effort and succeeded. He immediately gave information of his good fortune to Father Villani, his Vicar-General in the government of his Institute and his spiritual director, by a letter dated 27 August 1770, in which he thus expresses himself: “To-day I again began to say Mass, and I hope to be able to continue. The whole difficulty was in taking the Precious Blood; but a means of doing so with ease has been pointed out to me. Gloria Patri!” Writing to the same Father on the following 1 September, he says, “Thanks be to God! I continue to say Mass, but with great difficulty; when I finish Mass, I am nearly worn out and in great perspiration.” He afterwards obtained permission from Rome to say every day the Mass of the Blessed Virgin.

While making his thanksgiving after Mass he heard another Mass, which was said by his chaplain or another priest. During the recitation of the Credo, at the words Et incarnatus est he threw himself on his knees, holding himself profoundly inclined, notwithstanding the intense pain that he suffered; he did the same thing at the Consecration, although each time great efforts had to be made to raise him up and put him back into his chair.

He thus had the consolation of offering the Holy Sacrifice till his eighty-eighth year, either in his diocese or in the house of his Institute at Nocera, to which he retired in 1775, when Pope Pius VI finally consented to relieve him of the burden of the episcopate. When at the altar, he was always most exact in observing all the Rubrics, even in making the genuflections down to the floor, although it was most difficult for him to do so, and each time great effort was required to raise him up. In 1784, when Father Villani saw that the difficulty of saying Mass was becoming extreme, so much so that it was often feared that the saint would not be able to finish it, he begged him to abstain from celebrating Mass in future, telling him that such was the will of God. The words “the will of God” made the saint bow his head in submission. On 25 November, which was on a Friday, he made to God this great and perpetual sacrifice. He had still three years to live, during which he finished his eternal crown in the midst of new sufferings and the greatest trials, both interior and exterior, which he bore till the end in perfect conformity to the holy will of his God.