St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, October 30th

In the Church of Montesion built between 1571 and 1683, lies the holy remains of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, the Jesuit Porter saint who spent his entire religious life, about 45 years serving as the porter of the nearby Jesuit college. Today, 30^th October, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez.  Welcome to the saint of the day.

Alphonsus was born in Segovia, Spain as the son of a rich merchant. He loved Mother Mary as his own mother right from his childhood.  This was the anchor of his spiritual live. With the desire to become a Jesuit he started his studies with them, hoping to be accepted by them when he was old enough. However, the unexpected death of his father forced him to go home and to take up his father’s business.
Subsequently he marries and three children were born to him. His life was soon beset with a string of tragic events, the death of his mother, wife and two of the three children. The trauma of these loses also resulted in the down fall of his business. He struggled to pay his employees and was forced to wind up the business.

 

With his toddler son he stayed with his sister for some time.  It was a time to take stock of his life.  Later he wrote:  “In failure I saw the majesty of God. I saw the sublime grandeur of God from the dust of my misery. I imagined myself as a second David, and the Miserere was the expression of my state of soul.”
After some years his remaining son too died. The more he suffered the more he decided to surrender to the will of God. All these calamities impaired his health and he had very little education. A candidate like him was least fit to join any religious order. However, in his ardent desire to become a religious, his Jesuit mentors saw the finger of God and accepted him to become a lay brother. Jesuits tried to improve his academic level at Barcelona which was not successful.  Eventually he had to sit with school children even though he was in his forty’s.

He joined the Jesuit novitiate and was sent to the Montesion College on the Island of Majorca.  For the next forty-five years, he served as the doorkeeper and hall porter-- a duty which involved delivering packages, seeing to the lodging of travelers, greeting guests to the college, and dispensing alms to the poor. When not greeting guests and humbly serving at the most menial post, he could be found at prayer or in silent meditation.

Though as a porter, he was ignored by many, some however noticed his holiness and came for spiritual guidance. One among such was St. Peter Claver a Jesuit seminarian to whom he discerned the will of God, which was to serve the black slaves. This made Peter Claver “a saint in slave trade” and the servant of slaves.

His spiritual superiors affirm that a single conversation with him did more good than reading a huge treatise on spirituality. Though he was poor in erudition he came to known as the Doctor of Majorca.  The porter’s job was repetitious and monotonous work, demanding much humility, but Rodriguez imagined everyone who knocked at the door to be the Lord and greeted everyone with the same smile he would have given God. When the doorbell rang, he could be heard exclaiming, “Lord, I’m coming!” as he hurried to greet the arriving visitor.

Saint Alphonsus was conscious of his educational limitations, but looked to the grace of God as explanation of his ability to serve. He said, “Insofar as the consciousness of my own debility became keen in me, I felt the grandeur of the Lord.” Saint Alphonsus died following an extended illness. The three nights before his death, following his last Eucharist, were spent in visionary ecstasy. His funeral was attended by Church and government leaders

( Please ask your dear ones and friends to Start the Day with the Saint, published on the eve of the feast, everyday)