Alfonso Rodríguez, Saint

ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ, saint. - Spanish Jesuit, born at Segovia on 25 July 1532. Having devoted himself to commerce and married, after the death of his wife and children and the loss of his property, he asked to enter the Jesuits; because of his insufficient youthful studies and the impossibility of making them up at the age of thirty-nine, he was accepted in 1571 as a coadjutor. Sent to the college of Palma de Mallorca, he remained there for forty-seven years, until his death (31 Oct. 1617), almost always occupied in the office of porter. The holiness of his life, widely known, and the graciousness of his manner exercised a powerful beneficial influence on all those who lived and dealt with him. Suffice it to recall St. Pietro Claver, then a student of philosophy, who owed to him, besides effective counsel, his missionary vocation, foreseen by A. in a vision. The extraordinary gifts with which he was favored—visions, heavenly illuminations, the intense awareness of God’s presence in the soul—place A. among the most illustrious mystics. He left a record and clear explanations of these gifts in many writings, composed in obedience, copied by many, but published only after his death. He was beatified on 20 May 1825 and canonized on 15 Jan. 1888. His liturgical feast falls on 30 Oct.

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