St. Alphonsus Liguori (VVP 005) Ceramic Tree Decoration

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696–1787) was an Italian nobleman, a lawyer turned priest, prolific writer, founder of the Redemptorists, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church. Here, he stands unaided wearing his Bishop’s regalia—gold and white miter, violet cope with chartreuse lining, and golden pectoral cross. In his hands, he holds a quill pen and an open book. In reality, St. Alphonsus spent much of his later life confined to a wheelchair following a devastating bout of rheumatic fever during his episcopate. Seen frontally in this image, his infirmity is indicated only by his chin being slightly tucked against his chest. + The emphasis here is on St. Alphonsus’s prolific writings. In addition to quill pen and handheld book, a stack of volumes (not visible here) lay at his feet. St. Alphonsus wrote well over one hundred works on theology and spirituality, numerous letters, poems, hymns, and devotionals. In 1871, Pope Pius IX declared St. Alphonsus a Doctor of the Church recommending him to theologians as a master of moral theology. + Feast: August 1 + Image Credit (VVP 005): Detail of an antique image of St. Alphonsus Liguori from a late 19th-century devotional print in chromolithography, originally published by K. van de Vyvere-Petyt, Bruges, Belgium, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.