[1] It was two months after the infant's birth that Alphonsus de Ligouri was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

From his childhood, his parents noticed his compassion for children who were in need, as told in the book Operaio di Dio ('Alfonso Is His Name'), by Monsignor Salvatore Garofalo.

[1] Fusco – at the age of eleven – informed his parents that he wanted to become a priest and entered the Seminary of Nocera dei Pagani on 5 November 1850.

According to Eliodoro Tedesco's Biographic Profile of the Venerable Don Alfonso Maria Fusco, Founder of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist, the presence of the army in 1860 during battles related to unification caused the dispersion of the seminary's archives containing mention of Fusco's coursework.

During these days, Fusco had a dream that Jesus Christ ordered him to found a religious institute for sisters as well as an orphanage for boys and girls.

Antonio Salomon, Archbishop of Salerno, ordained Fusco in his private oratory in Avellino on 29 May 1863 (Pentecost Sunday).

Bishop Saverio Vitagliano attempted to remove him as the head of the institute based on false accusations; and his own sisters refused to open the door for him of the house on Via Germanico in Rome because of their desire for a division.

He requested and received the sacraments on the following morning and after he blessed his own religious daughters exclaimed: "Lord, I thank You, I have been a useless servant".

[3] Formal approval of the cause from the Congregation of Rites was issued under Pope Pius XII on 22 June 1951 and bestowed Fusco with the posthumous title of Servant of God.

On 12 February 1976 he was proclaimed to be Venerable after Pope Paul VI acknowledged the fact that Fusco had lived a model life of heroic virtue.

The medical testimonies and documentation was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who ratified the process on 24 September 1999 so that officials could initiate their own evaluation of the alleged miracle.