For almost 300 years the priests and brothers of the Redemptorist order have toiled so quietly and humbly among the poor and marginalized of society, few Americans know they exist.
Not many Denverites know that headquarters for their province covering the midwestern and western U.S. has been here since 1996.
Yet a rare limelight is stealing over the Redemptorists of the Denver Province with help from actor Liam Neeson and musician Ray Hermann.
And, of course, none of it would be possible without the order’s founder and patron saint, Alphonsus Liguori.
Sheet music and meditations written by St. Alphonsus centuries ago were rediscovered in the order’s archives, and the good fathers here have spent the past few years getting the previously unheard works performed and recorded by Hermann’s Little Lamb Music. The CDs also feature recitation by Neeson and others.
The Redemptorists’ CDs — “Praying the Way of the Cross,” “Praying the Rosary” and Praying the Seven Sorrows of Mary” — were released in 2008 and 2009.
Hermann and his wife, Theresa, give all the proceeds from CD sales, about $50,000 to date, to Redemptorist missions among “the poorest of the poor.”
St. Alphonsus’ hymns, though simple, are among the most moving music Hermann has experienced, he said.
But then St. Alphonsus — author, composer, painter, sculptor and architect — is one of the greatest overachievers in the long history of the Catholic Church. Still, like his order, he is little known by rank-and-file Catholics.
If Redemptorists had the communication skills of the Jesuits, the priests joke, Alphonsus would be a household name.
Now the order, in advance of the saint’s Aug. 1 feast day, is finally bragging. “It’s good the Gospel gets preached, however we do it,” Provincial Superior Harry Grile said.
St. Alphonsus, born near Naples, Italy, in 1696, received his doctorates in civil and canon law at the tender age of 16. However, the prodigy’s heart was at the hospital for “incurables,” where he washed and fed the afflicted.
Alphonsus left Naples to live and work among the rural poor, establishing his Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, commonly called Redemptorists.
Worldwide there are about 5,500. The 20 or so administrators in Denver are part of 400 priests, brothers and seminarians serving this province, which stretches from Seattle to Biloxi, and Chicago to Tucson. Their missions are in Brazil, Nigeria and Thailand.
For Hermann, who performs tonight at Red Rocks with the legendary rock band Chicago, collaborating with these men to help people pray has been “a wonderful journey through my faith.”
Alphonsus earned a name as a brilliant preacher of the Gospel, but to fully reach people of limited education and means he also composed songs, painted, sculpted and even designed buildings.
“He wanted the church to appeal (to) all the senses,” Grile said.
Alphonsus, multifaceted genius that he was, also had his problems, Grile said.
“He had a temper. He struggled to control it,” Grile said. “But he could also be very gentle, especially in the confessional. He was the lion of the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional.”
Alphonsus died Aug. 1, 1787, at age 91 and was canonized in 1839.
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput was recently photographed kneeling before the coffin of another Redemptorist saint, St. John Neumann, fourth bishop of Philadelphia and author of the Baltimore Catechism.
“Redemptorists nationwide are feeling especially proud that the new archbishop of Philadelphia is looking to our saint for strength and guidance,” spokesman Bruce Crane said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
