This year, as in previous years, we enjoy festivities in honour of the founding saint of the Redemptorist Missionaries, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, held in the chapel that is his birthplace in Marianella, a suburb of Naples.
The solemnity is preceded by a triduum, July 29-31; Fathers Ciro Avella and Marcel invited their confrere Fr. Filippo Strippoli, for the occasion, who highlighted just a few aspects of our saint’s biography (three days are not enough time to recount the 90 of our illustrious fellow citizen!), his Christian charity, his merciful love true to the poorest, and his writings as a doctor of the church. And precisely because we are in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025 and Pope Francis has dedicated this year to prayer, it went without saying that we would address the importance of prayer for the life of the Christian, a topic that our Master of Prayer dealt with in two of his works in particular: “Ways of Conversing and Continually and Familiarity with God” (1753) and “Necessity of Prayer” (1758). The faithful who attended in the evening, with interest and participation, followed the celebration, animating it with songs, some of which were composed by St. Alphonsus himself.
On the first evening of prayer, a distinguished relic of the Neapolitan saint was solemnly displayed; particularly intense was the celebration on the eve that was attended by the parish community of Miano (a neighbourhood bordering Marianella) of Saints Alphonsus and Gerard (the only one in the whole world to be dedicated to the two Redemptorist saints!) led by their Marianellian pastor Fr. Salvatore Cinque and who carried in procession a new image of the Holy Bishop. To all, St. Alphonsus’ very full and intense life of cultural and spiritual experiences gave strong emotions. At the end of this ceremony, Fr. Ciro distributed Rosary Chaplets handcrafted by members of the Soul Express Association, who collaborate and do their best on these feast days.
Early in the morning, August 1, the fireworks bang, announce the solemn day of the feast. Many faithful and Religious Communities flock to the little church and come from different parts of Naples to participate in the Eucharist and visit the rooms where Donna Anna Cavalieri gave birth to her firstborn son. For the past several years, the last days lived by St. Alphonsus have been proclaimed with pious transit in the late morning. The vespertine Eucharistic celebration was presided over by the newly appointed auxiliary bishop of Salerno, Monsignor Alfonso Raimo; he, too, on this solemn day, emphasized the importance of prayer, learning from Christ this enables us to enter into a very special relationship with the Father and to know how to face, like Jesus, even the dark and sad periods to which life unfortunately subjects us.
We are all proud and always feel a strong emotion and joy to think that our little Marianella Community has given life to “the holiest of Neapolitans and the most Neapolitan of saints” – Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. As a “teacher of the faith and doctor of the Church,” we are called to learn from him in being disciples of Christ also through prayer because “he who prays certainly saves himself, he who does not pray certainly doomed himself!”
Lina Di Maro
