St. Alphonsus Liguori was born in 1696 to Neapolitan nobility at Marianella, Italy. He became a renowned lawyer after going through law school at the age of sixteen, but later decided to leave law in favor of giving his salvation more attention. Alphonsus joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri as a seminarian and was ordained in 1726, when he was thirty. The homilies he gave had the special ability of converting those who had fallen away from the faith.
12 Steps to Holiness is a compilation of his writings on the twelve key virtues; love hope, love of God, love of neighbor, poverty, chastity, obedience, humility, mortification, recollection, prayer and love of the cross.