Marriage and loss
St Alphonsus Rodriguez is one of those saints used as an example of the “little way”: someone of no obviously spectacular gifts who, by patiently carrying out his small tasks with care and devotion, became the great soul that God wished him to be.
Born into a poor family in 1530s Spain, he married at age 26. Five years later his wife died, leaving him with a son. This son died too, and Alphonsus was left without dependants, but seeking some way to give his life to God.
He was attracted to the Jesuits, then a relatively new order. But there were several obstacles. His love of mortification had caused him serious health problems; and coming from a poor background, he had very little education, normally a requirement to start religious life.
The preacher-porter
When he eventually entered the Jesuits, at the age of 38, it was clear that he would not become a priest. Instead he
served as a porter – and remained one for nearly 46 years. It wasn’t just his Jesuit brothers who loved him; people started coming to him for spiritual advice.
St Alphonsus also wrote and preached, when commanded to by his superiors – his meekness and spirit of obedience were legendary – so there is some written record of the spiritual talks he sometimes gave.
Legacy of holiness
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: “The bodily mortifications which he imposed on himself were extreme, the scruples and mental agitation to which he was subject were of frequent occurrence, his obedience absolute, and his absorption in spiritual things, even when engaged on most distracting employments, continual.”
Among those devoted to him were a later Jesuit, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who wrote: “God … Could crowd career with conquest while there went / Those years and years by of world without event / That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.”
The suppression of the Jesuits helped to delay his canonisation until 1888.
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