St. Raymond of Penyafort

Their story

Raymond was born around 1175 near Barcelona, in Catalonia, to a noble family. He was a brilliant student and became a professor of law, first in Barcelona and then at the University of Bologna, the great law school of the Middle Ages. Around the age of 47 he gave up his position and joined the young Order of Preachers, the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic only a few years earlier. His superiors asked him to write a guide for confessors, to help priests give wise counsel in the Sacrament of Penance. His reputation reached Pope Gregory IX, who called him to Rome to be his confessor and asked him to gather the scattered laws of the Church into one collection. Raymond spent several years on the task. His collection, published in 1234, remained a foundation of the Church's law for almost seven hundred years. He also worked with St. Peter Nolasco in support of the Mercedarians, an order devoted to ransoming Christians held captive. In 1238 Raymond was elected master general of the Dominicans. He traveled on foot to visit the friars and revised their rule, then resigned after two years so he could return to preaching, teaching and hearing confessions. He encouraged the study of Arabic and Hebrew so that friars could speak with Muslims and Jews, and tradition says he asked St. Thomas Aquinas to write a book explaining the faith to them. A famous legend says he once crossed the sea from Majorca to Barcelona on his cloak. He died in Barcelona on January 6, 1275, nearly one hundred years old, and was canonized in 1601.