October 30 - Saint Alonso Rodriguez

Quick Facts
  • Third of eleven children in the family of the wealthy wool merchant Diego Rodriguez.
  • Met Blessed Peter Faber when he was 10; the beati prepared the boy for his First Communion.
  • Sent to study under the Jesuits at age 14, but his father died within a year, and Alonso returned home to learn and manage the business.
  • Married Mary Suarez at age 26.
  • His business suffered, and two children died in infancy; one son survived.
  • Widower in his early 30's, and his mother died soon after.
  • He sold the business, and moved in with his sisters; they helped raise his son, and taught Alonso prayerful meditation.
  • When his son died, he decided to follow his call to the religious life.
  • He gave away what little he had left, and tried to join the Jesuits; he did not have the education they required, and was refused.
  • Attended the College of Barcelona, but could not complete the work.
  • Self-imposed austerities nearly destroyed his health; at age 60 he was ordered to begin sleeping in a bed instead of the chair, bench or ground he had previously used.
  • However, at the recommendation of Jesuit Father Luis Santander, Alonso became a Jesuit lay-brother, admitted on 31 January 1571 at Valencia, Spain, and began to study alongside children.
  • Porter and doorkeeper at the Jesuit college of Montesión at Palma, Majorca for 46 years, a duty which involved delivering packages, seeing to the lodging of travellers, and dispensing alms to the poor.
  • From this humble post he influenced many through the years.Obsessed with the spiritual, and given to extreme self-imposed austerities.
  • He had a special devotion to Saint Ursula, and was so obedient to his superiors that when one told him to eat his plate, he tried to cut it with a knife and fork.
  • Friend and room-mate of Saint Peter Claver; advised Peter to request missionary work in South America.
  • Professed his final Jesuit vows at the age of 54.
  • Reputed to heal by fervent prayer.The night before his death was spent in a visionary ecstacy (see image).
  • Some authors claim he wrote the "Little Office of the Immaculate Conception", but his part was to make more popular.
  • Left behind a collection of manuscripts of journal entries, random thoughts, simple illustrations, and musings on things spiritual that are remarkable for their simplicity, sound and correct doctine, and spiritual understanding; they were published as "Spiritual Works of Blessed Alonso Rodriguez" in Barcelona in 1885.