St Alphonsus Rodriguez

Alphonsus Rodriguez is a saint of late ripening and hidden endurance. He began as merchant, husband, and father, and only through loss, disappointment, bereavement, and inward purification was he slowly led toward the Society of Jesus. There he did not become a public preacher or administrator. He became a lay brother and spent forty-five years as porter at the college of Montesione in Majorca.

That hidden post is the heart of the life. Alphonsus prayed, did penance, bore dryness and obscurity, and sanctified ordinary duties until they became the place of very high holiness. His influence was quiet but real, especially on the young St Peter Claver. This life is compelling because grace works here not through outward prominence, but through long fidelity at one humble door.