Saint of October 30, Alfonso Rodriguez: history and prayers

Tomorrow, Saturday 30 October, the Church commemorates alfonso rodriguez.

Born on 25 July 1533 in Segovia, Spain, to a family of wool merchants and cloth weavers, Alfonso studied with profit in the Jesuit college of Alcalà, but at 23, following the death of his father, he was forced to I return home to run the small family business.

But everything seems against him: business doesn't interest him, and within a few years he also dramatically loses his wife - whom he married in 1560 - and his two children.

Marked by life, in 1569 Alfonso gave all his possessions to his brother and moved to Valencia, where he joined the Jesuits as a coadjutor brother. In 1571 he was sent to the College of Monte Sion in Palma de Majorca, where he lived until his death on 30 October 1617. Beatified in 1825, Alfonso was canonized in 1888.

PRAYER

O God, who in the faithful service of our brother Alfonso

you showed us the way of glory and peace,

allow us to remain active followers of Jesus Christ,

who made himself the servant of all, lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.

PRAYER

O God, who illumines your Church with the example of your saints,

grant that the evangelical and generous testimony of Saint Alfonso Rodriguez

remind us of a more dignified and generous life

and the memory of his deeds always stimulates us

imitating your Son. Amen