Raymond of Peñafort was born in 1175 in Spain and was a relative of the king of Aragon.
By
the age of twenty he was already a teacher of philosophy, and in his
early thirties earned a doctorate in both Canon and Civil Law. At
forty-one he joined the Dominican Order and was later called to Rome to
be confessor to Pope Gregory IX.
At the Pontiff’s instance
Raymond compiled all the laws and decrees of the popes and the Church
Councils. For this work he is known as the patron of canon lawyers.
At
the age of sixty, he was appointed Archbishop of Tarragona, but
resigned within two years after becoming ill. He was thunderstruck when
he was elected the third Superior General of the Dominicans. As such, he
visited all the Dominicans on foot and reorganized their constitutions.
With
King James of Aragon and St. Peter Nolasco he founded the Order of Our
Lady of Ransom dedicated to rescuing Christian prisoners from their
Muslim captors.
St. Raymond is often pictured sailing over water
using his cloak as a sail. When accompanying King James to the island of
Majorca, the latter, despite his qualities, was giving scandal. At the
saint’s rebuke, the king promised to send the woman away but did not
follow through on his word. On hearing of the saint’s threat to leave
the island, the king forbade every captain in Majorca to grant him
passage.
Laying
his cloak upon the waves and holding one end of it over a staff, the
saint prayed, made the sign of the cross, stepped onto his cloak and
sailed for six hours back to the Spanish mainland – which fact converted
the king.
St. Raymond was known as a great devotee of Our Lady,
an ascetic, contemplative, lawyer, preacher, opposer of heresies and
apostle to Muslims.
He died in 1275 at the age of one hundred.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
St. Raymond of Peñafort
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