Raymund
was born at Barcelona to a noble family. Having been imbued with the
rudiments of the Christian faith, the admirable gifts he had received
both of mind and body were such that even when quite a boy he seemed
to promise great things in his later life. While still young he
taught humanities in Barcelona. Later on he went to Bologna where he
applied himself with much diligence to the exercises of a virtuous
life and to the study of canon and civil law. He there received the
Doctor’s
cap and interpreted the sacred canons so ably that he was the
admiration of his hearers. The holiness of his life becoming known
far and wide, Berengarius, the Bishop of Barcelona, when returning to
his diocese from Rome, took Bologna in his way in order to see him.
And after most earnest entreaties, he induced Raymund to accompany
him to Barcelona. He was shortly after made Canon and Provost of that
Church and became a model to the clergy and people by his
uprightness, modesty, learning and meekness. His tender devotion to
the Holy Mother of God was extraordinary and he never neglected an
opportunity of zealously promoting the devotion and honour which are
due to her.
When he was about 45 years of age, Raymund made his solemn profession
in the Order of the Friars Preachers. He then, as a soldier but just
entered into service, devoted himself to the exercise of every
virtue, but, above all, to charity to the poor, and this mainly to
the captives who had been taken by the infidels. It was by his
exhortation that Saint Peter Nolasco (who was his penitent) was
induced to devote all his riches to this work of most meritorious
charity. The Blessed VirginMary appeared to Peter, as also to
Raymund and to James I, King of Arragon, telling them that it would
be exceedingly pleasing to herself and her divine child if an Order
of Religious men were instituted whose mission it should be to
deliver captives from the tyranny of infidels. After deliberating
together, they founded the Order of our Lady of Mercy for the Ransom
of Captives and Raymund drew up certain rules of life which were
admirably adapted to the spirit and vocation of the Order. Some years
after, he obtained their approbation from Gregory IX and made Saint
Peter Nolasco, to whom he gave the habit with his own hands, first
General of the Order.
Raymund
was called to Rome by the same Pope who appointed him to be his
Chaplain, Penitentiary and Confessor. It was by Gregory’s
order that he collected together in the volume called the Decretals
the Decrees of the Roman Pontiffs which were to be found separately
in the various Councils and Letters. He was most resolute in refusing
the Archbishopric of Tarragon, which the same Pontiff offered to him
and, of his own accord, resigned the Generalship of the Dominican
Order, which office he had discharged in a most holy manner for the
space of two years. He persuaded James, the King of Aragon, to
establish in his dominions the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He
worked many miracles, among which is that most celebrated one of his
having, when returning to Barcelona from the island of Majorca,
spread his cloak upon the sea and sailed upon it, in the space of six
hours, the distance of 160 miles, and having reached his convent, he
entered it through the closed doors. At length, when he had almost
reached the hundredth year of his age and was full of virtue and
merit, he slept in the Lord, in the year of the Incarnation 1275. He
was canonised by Pope Clement VIII.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
The glorious choir of Martyrs that stands round our Emmanuel till the day of His Presentation in the Temple opens its ranks, from time to time, to give admission to the Confessors whom divine Providence has willed should grace the Cycle during this sacred season. The Martyrs surpass all the other Saints in number but, still, the Confessors are well represented. After Hilary, Paul, Maurus and Antony comes Raymund of Pennafort, one of the glories of the Order of Saint Dominic and of the Church in the thirteenth century.
According to the saying of the Prophets, the Messiah is come to be our Lawgiver. Nay, He is Himself our Law. His words are to be the rule of mankind. He will leave with His Church the power of legislation, to the end that she may guide men in holiness and justice in all ages. As it is his Truth that presides over the teaching of the Faith, so is it His Wisdom that regulates Canonical Discipline. But the Church, in the compilation and arrangement of her laws, engages the services of men whom she judges to be the most competent for the work by their knowledge of Canon Law and the holiness of their lives.
Saint Raymund has the honour of having been entrusted to draw up the Church’s Code of Canon Law. It was he who in the year 1234 compiled, by order of Pope Gregory IX, the five Books of the Decretals. And his name will ever be associated with this great work which forms the basis of the actual discipline of the Church. Raymund was a faithful disciple of that God who came down from Heaven to save sinners by calling them to receive pardon. He has merited the beautiful title conferred on him by the Church, of excellent Minister of the Sacrament of Penance. He was the first who collected together into one body of doctrine the maxims of Christian morality which regulate the duties of the confessor with regard to the Faithful who confess their sins to him. The Sum of Penitential Cases opened the series of those important Treatises in which learned and holy men have carefully considered the claims of law and the obligations of man, in order to instruct the Priest how to pass judgement, as the Scripture says, between leprosy and leprosy. In fine, when the glorious Mother of God who is also the mother of men, raised up, for the Redemption of Captives, the generous Peter Nolasco whom we will meet a few days hence at the crib of our Redeemer, Raymund was an important instrument in this great work of mercy, and it is with good reason that the Order of Mercy looks upon him as one of its founders, and that so many thousands of captives who were ransomned by the Religious of that Order from the captivity of the Moors, have honoured him as one of the principal authors of their liberty.
* * * * *
Faithful dispenser of the Mystery of reconciliation, it was from the Heart of an Incarnate God that you drew the sweet charity which made you the friend of the sinner. You loved your fellow men and laboured to supply all their wants, whether of soul or body. Enlightened by the rays of the Sun of Justice, you have taught us how to discern between good and evil, by giving us those rules by which our wounds are judged and healed. Rome was the admirer of your knowledge of her laws, and it is one of her glories that she received from your hand the sacred Code by which she governs the Churches of the world.
Excite in our hearts, Raymund, that sincere compunction which is the condition required of us when we seek our pardon in the Sacrament of Penance. Make us understand both the grievousness of mortal sin, which separates us from our God for all eternity, and the dangers of venial sin, which disposes the tepid soul to fall into mortal sin. Pray that there may abound in the Church men filled with charity and learning who may exercise that sublime ministry of healing souls. Preserve them from the two extremes, of rigourism which drives to despair, and of laxity which flatters into sloth. Revive among them the study of the holy Canons which can alone keep disorder and anarchy from the fold of Christ. Oh you that had such tender love for captives, console all that are pining now in exile or in prison. Pray for their deliverance, and pray that we all may be set loose from the ties of sin which but too often make them, who boast of their outward liberty, be slaves in their souls.
You were the confidant of the Heart of Mary, the Queen of Mercy, and she made you share with her in the work of the Redemption of Captives. You have great power with this Heart which, after the Heart of Jesus, is our hope. Pray for us to this incomparable Mother of God that we may have the grace to love the Divine Child she holds in her arms. May she be induced, by your prayers, to be our Star on the Sea of this world, more stormy far than that which you passed when sailing on your miraculous barque. Remember, too, your dear Spain where you passed your saintly life. Her Church is in mourning because she has lost the Religious Orders which made her so grand and so strong: pray that they may be speedily restored to her, and assist her as of old. Protect the Dominican Order, of whose Habit and Rule you were so bright an ornament. You governed it with great prudence while on Earth. Now that you are in Heaven, be a father to it by your love. May it repair its losses. May it once more flourish in the universal Church and produce, as in former days, those fruits of holiness and learning, which made it one of the chief glories of the Church of God.
