By Rodney Pelletier, Church Militant - Artistic renderings of St. Alphonsus show him as a smiling saint with shoulders bent with arthritis. Despite that, he was a spiritual giant whose expositions of the Catholic faith have benefited many souls. He was born near Naples in 1696 and showed his great intellectual gifts when, at 16 years old, he earned a doctorate in civil and Church law. He became a celebrated lawyer and was overly proud of his abilities.