Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Alphonsus practiced law with great success in Naples for over a decade before a painful professional defeat, in a case he later realized he had misjudged, led him to reconsider his entire way of life. He was ordained a priest in 1726, dedicating himself especially to preaching missions among the rural poor of southern Italy, who he found were often neglected by the ordinary structures of parish ministry. To sustain this work, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, in 1732. He wrote extensively on moral theology at a time when the field was divided by excessively harsh and excessively lax approaches to sin and conscience, developing a balanced system that became highly influential in Catholic pastoral practice. Made a bishop in his sixties despite chronic ill health, he continued writing prolifically until his death at ninety, and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871.