The doctor and apostle of prayer. St. Alphonsus - 02

Meantime his studies were not neglected. His father, remarking the wonderful quickness of his intellect, procured the best masters for him as soon as he was capable of instruction. The young Alphonsus soon obtained considerable proficiency in the Greek, Latin, and French languages. He excelled, too, in poetical composition, as may be inferred from the touching hymns which he composed, especially those in honour of Jesus and Mary. He applied himself, too, to the study of music, painting, and architecture with no inconsiderable success. After these lighter accomplishments he turned his attention to graver subjects, such as philosophy and mathematics, and finally gave himself up entirely to the study of law. The Bull of his Canonization tells us that "he possessed so great an aptitude for learning that he had scarcely entered on his sixteenth year when, after a rigorous examination, he obtained, with distinguished applause, the degree of Doctor both in Canon and Civil Law." All Naples, indeed, wondered at the extent and solidity of his knowledge. From this time, in obedience to the wishes of his father, he applied all his attention to the practice of the Bar. For ten years he continued to plead as a barrister, with brilliant success for during all this time he never lost a single case, with the exception of the last of all, of which we are about to speak, and the loss of which produced such happy results. The arduous duties which engaged him in the law-courts did not, however, induce him to swerve even a hair's breadth from the path of virtue. No one could be more vigilant than he was in avoiding occasions of sin. If he happened to commit a fault, he bitterly wept over it, however slight it might be. When he joined the pious Congregation of young doctors he was a model for all his companions. He used to be present each day at the Holy Sacrifice; frequently to go to Confession and to Holy Communion; to spend a great part of his time in prayer, especially during the devotion of the Forty Hours; and to serve the sick in the public hospitals. These pious practices formed the delight of our young lawyer. In order, too, to keep up the fervour of his piety, he accompanied his father every year to some religious house in order to go through the spiritual exercises.

About this time it happened that the fervour of Alphonsus began to grow a little cool. The games, innocent indeed in themselves in which he began to indulge, the theatres to which from time to time he used to go by his father's orders, the brilliant marriages which were proposed to him (but from which, by a hidden instinct of the Holy Spirit, he was most averse), the praises and flatteries which reached his ears from all quarters—all these could not but exercise an influence over him, and so by degrees things came to such a pass that he used to omit, even for the most trivial reasons, his accustomed exercises of piety. "If I had remained long in this state of tepidity" (he used afterwards to say) "I should certainly have fallen headlong into the greatest excesses." But the innocence of his life, which, according to the Roman Breviary, was never stained by mortal sin, was soon delivered from the great danger to which it was exposed; for when he was going through the Spiritual Exercises as usual, he experienced a complete renewal of spirit, and not only returned to his former habits of virtue, but even went beyond all that he had hitherto practised.

Not long afterwards a providential event induced Alphonsus to make a complete break from the world. He had undertaken the defence of a case of the highest importance, and had spent a whole month in mastering all its details. When the day for hearing the case had arrived, he went full of confidence to the court, made his opening speech with his usual eloquence, quoting the words of the law, and confirming his position with what seemed to be indisputable arguments. But just as he was flattering himself that, with the applause of all, the decision would be given in his favour, the whole of his argument was suddenly upset by a few words from the lawyer on the opposite side, who pointed out that Alphonsus had mistaken a negative for an affirmative. Alphonsus stopped in confusion, and immediately recognising his mistake, was overwhelmed with emotion, fearing that he would be suspected of unfair dealing. Blushing with shame, he hurried from the court, exclaiming: "World, I know thee now!—no longer shalt thou see me." On entering his house, he betook himself to his room, where, like another Paul, he remained three days and three nights without eating or drinking. When at length he left his solitude, he had resolutely determined to bid farewell to the law courts, whose dangers he had learned by sad experience.*

This first heavenly grace was soon followed by a second and much more extraordinary one. On a certain day, when Alphonsus was in the Hospital of Incurables, attending the sick, he suddenly saw himself surrounded by a bright light. The whole house seemed to be shaken as by an earthquake, and a voice repeated in his inmost heart these words: "Forsake the world, and give thyself wholly to Me." Although he was struck by the strangeness of the thing, he did not leave off what he was doing. But when his work was finished, and he was on the point of leaving the hospital, the same voice was again clearly heard, and this time in his very ears: "Forsake the world, and give thyself wholly to Me." Alphonsus then waits no longer, but exclaims, with tearful eyes: "My God, here I am! Do with me what Thou wilt." And then, moved by a divine impulse, he directs his steps to the Church of Our Lady, and there, encircled with a celestial light, he gives himself up entirely to the service of God, and promises that he will renounce the world. As a pledge of his fidelity, he takes off his sword, which he wore as the mark of his rank, and lays it on the altar of the holy Virgin. This took place in the Church of Our Lady of Ransom, of the Redemption of Captives; as though Divine Providence wished to show that Alphonsus henceforth would devote himself to the work of redemption by founding the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.

The day on which this happened was ever a memorable one to St. Alphonsus as long as he lived, and in his humility he used to call it the day of his conversion; and justly so, for it was then that he offered himself as a complete holocaust to God. The moment he knew the way along which he was to walk, Alphonsus entered upon it with alacrity. He formed the resolution of becoming a priest, and of following the Most Holy Redeemer in the salvation of souls. But it can scarcely be expressed how great was the opposition which his proposal met with. His father left nothing untried to shake his resolution for he desired his son to occupy a brilliant position in the world. But threats and entreaties were equally vain—Alphonsus overcame all with heroic courage; and on the 23rd of October, 1723, he put on the ecclesiastical dress, and enrolled himself in the service of God. Since he well knew that the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, he applied himself with the greatest diligence to the study of sacred theology. He made so admirable a use of his time that three years had scarcely elapsed when he was judged to be perfectly qualified for all the duties of the apostolic ministry. Without delay he was ordained priest on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 1726, and celebrated his first holy Mass at Naples, with all the ardour of a seraph, being then in his thirty-first year.

*The whole case would seem to have turned on whether the fief in dispute was held under Lombard or French law, and Alphonsus could not explain how he overlooked a clause in the documents which destroyed his whole case. A chapter—entitled "The Road to Damascus"—in Father Berthe's Life of St. Alphonsus, graphically describes the scene in court that day. (2 Vols. Duffy and Co., Dublin.)—Ed.