Servant of God — Legion Envoy to South America
24 June 1932 – 21 January 1959
Alphonsus John Lambe was born on 24 June 1932, the feast of St. John the Baptist, in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. He was the youngest of eight children of Timothy and Kate Lambe, well-respected farmers whose home reflected a deep atmosphere of Catholic devotion. Alfie grew up immersed in farm life, with regular family prayers and active parish participation.
In September 1948, at age 16, Alfie entered the Novitiate of the Irish Christian Brothers, receiving the religious name Brother Ignatius. He described his entry as “one of the happiest days of his life.” However, recurring fainting attacks due to delicate health forced him to leave in 1949. He returned to Tullamore and secured employment at a local mill, though this setback would redirect him toward his true vocation.
In July 1950, invited by his brother Jack, Alfie joined the Legion of Mary in Tullamore. His shy demeanour quickly gave way to extraordinary apostolic zeal. He threw himself into extension campaigns across rural Irish dioceses — Killala, Kerry, Waterford, Raphoe, and Kilmore — under the guidance of his close friend and mentor, Seamus Grace.
Alfie became a full-time indoor brother at the Morning Star Hostel in Dublin's north inner city, serving homeless men. His sister Kathleen recalled him cycling through rural Irish winters, returning late at night “soaked to the skin” with minimal visible results, yet persisting every night without complaint.
“I am really very weak but I know that Our Lady uses the weak to show her power.”— Alfie Lambe
Frank Duff personally chose Alfie — at just 21 years old — to become the Legion's envoy to South America. On 16 July 1953, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Alfie departed Ireland alongside Seamus Grace. He was the youngest envoy ever dispatched by the Legion of Mary.
Arriving in Bogota, Colombia, Alfie immediately began establishing praesidia in parishes, slums, and among the marginalised. He proved to be a remarkably gifted linguist, mastering Spanish within six months and later learning Portuguese and Quechua (the most spoken indigenous language in the Americas).
Over nearly six years, Alfie traversed the entire continent, visiting schools, leper colonies, prisons, parishes, and slums to establish branches of the Legion. He worked in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Venezuela — travelling by air, train, bus, lorry, and on foot.
In Ecuador, he established praesidia in Quito, Guayaquil, Ambato, and dozens of other cities. In Peru, he created regional councils in Trujillo, Cuzco, and Puno, and founded approximately 20 new praesidia in Lima. In Argentina, he worked under Archbishop Caggiano of Buenos Aires, with over 200 new praesidia established in the wake of his work there.
The South Americans called him affectionately “El Corderito” (the little lamb) for his gentle demeanour. He possessed a special gift for getting people to do things they thought impossible. When starting new praesidia, he would identify the most difficult parish area and tell the members: “Now you will see how Mary will use you.”
“Living the Legion is living the life of Our Blessed Lady, and the more one gives oneself to the Legion the more one finds oneself in Mary.”— Alfie Lambe
Alfie was known for his profound humility. When a nurse commented he was “an extraordinary Catholic,” he replied simply: “Oh no, I am only a very ordinary Catholic.” He maintained a deep prayer life — daily Mass and Communion, the approved Church Office, the Rosary, and the Magnificat. His bedside companions were the Gospels and St. Louis-Marie de Montfort's True Devotion to Jesus through Mary.
He greeted priests with their full Spanish title, Su Reverencia, earning their deep respect. He aimed at writing at least three letters each day and was known for his infectious enthusiasm and magnetic personality. In a village called Chicoana, a missionary priest, armed only with the Legion Handbook and Alfie's instruction, established a praesidium that grew to 170 active members within two years.
Alfie had always been of delicate constitution. The relentless pace of travel and exhausting work took their toll. In late 1958, while in Cordoba, Argentina, he was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer. On 9 January 1959, surgery in Buenos Aires revealed that it was in fact stomach cancer affecting multiple vital organs.
He received the Last Rites from Cardinal Santiago Luis Copello, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and the Last Blessing from Cardinal Umberto Mozzoni, the Apostolic Nuncio. In his final moments, he expressed forgiveness and urged those around him to deepen their devotion to the Virgin Mary. Among his last words: “Do not pray too much for me because I will be able to help you much better from heaven.”
Alphonsus Lambe died on 21 January 1959 — the feast of St. Agnes, whose name means “lamb” in Latin — at the age of 26. His Requiem Mass was celebrated at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, and he was interred in the vault of the Irish Christian Brothers at the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta.
The cause for beatification was formally introduced by the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires in 1978, granting Alfie the title “Servant of God.” The diocesan tribunal was officially closed on 26 March 2015, with all documentation transferred to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. In January 2020, a Relator was appointed and work on the Positio commenced. The cause remains active.
His tomb at La Recoleta Cemetery has become a centre of pilgrimage and devotion, particularly among the youth of South America. Annual Masses are celebrated in his memory in both Buenos Aires and Dublin.
O God, who by your infinite mercy inflamed the heart of your servant, Alphonsus Lambe, with an ardent love for you and for Mary, our Mother; a love which revealed itself in a life of intense labour, prayer and sacrifice for the salvation of souls, grant, if it be your will, that we may obtain, by his intercession, what we cannot obtain by our own merits. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.