Ugly Little Saint

Alphonse Liguori (Feast Day August 1st) was more Stephen Hawkins than Perry Mason.  He was both a civil lawyer and a canon lawyer by the time he was sixteen.  It was considered impossible to do that before age twenty.   Through his long life of ninety-one years, he needed every bit of that knowledge, every day.  In the end, it was probably his failure as a lawyer that brought him to sainthood.

            In today's parlance, St. Alphonse was a nerd, a geek, a brain. He was short and homely and crippled with arthritis and had very bad eyesight. But he was smart. He became well known and esteemed in his native Naples, as one of the best lawyers in that city, and he knew it. One huge case came his way and that is when he blew it. Everyone was watching and talking about this case. It was a civil case between a Nobleman and the Duke of Tuscany and thought to be worth a half million dollars (in today's money) in damages. St. Alphonse gave his opening to the Court and sat smugly down. He was The Man and this case was just a formality to the renown ahead of him. Opposing counsel rose and informed Alphonse and the Court "Your arguments are wasted breath. You have overlooked a document which destroys your whole case!" And it did, that day. This is every trial lawyer’s worst nightmare. St. Alphonse took to his bed for three days, overwhelmed with the public humiliation, not to mention his displeased client.

            In the end he read into this humiliation that God had sent him this experience to break down his massive ego. Saint Alphonse never went back to the law. He became a priest, founded the Redemptorists, wrote more than a hundred books, preached thousands of missions. Alphonse was not only canonized but named a Doctor of the Church. There is a long and full bio at Redemptorists.net . Even at ninety-one it is hard to imagine fitting all of that into one life.

I owe a debt to Saint Alphonse.  When I took a four-year vacation from the faith, it was a Redemptorist priest who called me back.  Fr. Donald Miniscalo, C.Ss.R. was the best preacher I ever heard.  We met when I was sitting in my church after he had preached one of his missions.  I was so deep in thought that I did not realize I was the last one in church.  Father Don slipped in beside me and said, “What do you do for a living?”  I told him I was a lawyer and he stood up and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, you’re too far gone.  I can’t save you”.  He stood up and started to walk away.  “Wait a minute” I said, “You’re not even going to try?”  He stopped, turned around slowly and said “Ok, I’ll try, meet me after the mission Mass tomorrow morning”.  That was the beginning of one of the most important friendships of my life.

Thank you, Saint Alphonse, and Thank you, Father Don.