Saints This Month - 7 January: St Raymond of Pennafort

St Raymond was one of the bright young things of the early 13th century. He was born into a noble Catalan family and excelled from an early age in his studies. At the age of 20 he was already carving a reputation for himself as a canon and civil lawyer at the University of Barcelona. In 1210 he moved to Bologna, where he remained for twelve years, including three years occupying the chair of canon law at the university. Whilst at the height of his academic career, inspired by the preaching of Blessed Reginald of Orleans, he returned to Barcelona and on Good Friday 1222 took the humble habit of the Order of Preachers.

His preaching, especially to the Jews and Muslims of the Iberian peninsular, was renowned. This and his great spirit of humility and mortification endeared him to the King of Aragon James I, who appointed him as his confessor and occasional emissary to the Holy See. He also acted as a spiritual director to St Peter Nolasco and was instrumental in the founding of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, which devoted itself to saving Christians captured by the Moors.

Raymond's dealings with the Holy See and his reputation in the juridical sciences led to Pope Gregory IX summoning him to Rome to help in rearranging and codifying canon law. Raymond's holiness and preaching so impressed the Papal Court that very soon after his arrival he was made Papal confessor. When Raymond completed his work, the pope appointed him Archbishop of Tarragona, but he declined the honour and returned to Iberia in 1236.The collection of canon law on which Raymond worked is known as the Gregorian Decretals and was the standard text of canon law for almost 700 years.

However his mission to the Jews and Muslims was interrupted in 1238 when he was elected Master of the Order. This honour too was unsought and undesired but he humbly obeyed the decision of his brothers and served for two years. During his tenure he revised the Dominican Constitutions but resigned because of ill health in 1240.

Although he was now an elderly man, Raymond had no intention of retiring. He was still vitally concerned with converting the Jews and the Moors, and so he contributed the alms he received from bishops and princes to schools where missionaries could be taught Hebrew and Arabic. Tradition says that he asked St Thomas Aquinas to "compose a work against the errors of the infidels, by which both the cloud of darkness might be dispelled and the teaching of the true Sun be made manifest" and that Thomas responded by composing the Summa contra Gentiles. He wa still very close to the King and used this influence to organise debates between leading Rabbis and Christians in the royal palace.

Whilst he respected and loved the King; he would admonish the Monarch's failings regarding chastity. Whilst on a visit to Majorca, on which Raymond had accompanied the king in the hope of strengthening Christianity there, Raymond discovered that the king was involved in a sinful love affair with a woman of the court. The king refused to listen to Raymond's protests, and when Raymond threatened to leave the island, the king threatened with death anyone who would give him passage. Thereupon, or so it is said, Raymond spread his cappa on the water, set up his staff as a mast, and, having rigged up a corner of the cloak as a sail, boarded this miraculous "boat," setting his course for Barcelona. He arrived there the same day, having covered 140 miles in about six hours. A great crowd assembled at the waterfront witnessed the end of this marvelous voyage, which inspired numerous conversions.

Raymond died in 1275 at the age of 100. He is buried in the cathedral of Barcelona. He is the patron saint of canon lawyers and in Catalonia, he is the patron saint of all lawyers. Many wind-surfers hold him as their unofficial patron.