Raymund, surnamed Nonnatus on account of his having been brought into the world in an unusual manner after the death of his mother, was of a pious and noble family of Portelli in Catalonia. Raymund was born in about 1200 AD. From his very infancy he showed signs of his future holiness for, despising childish amusements and the attractions of the world, he applied himself to the practice of piety so that all wondered at his virtue, which far surpassed his age. As he grew older he began his studies, but after a short time he returned at his father’s command to live in the country. He frequently visited the chapel of Saint Nicholas near Portelli to venerate in it a holy image of the Mother of God, which is still much honoured by the faithful. There he would pour out his prayers, begging God’s holy Mother to adopt him for her son and to deign to teach him the way of salvation and the science of the saints.
The most benign Virgin heard his prayer and gave him to understand that it would greatly please her if he entered the religious Order lately founded by her inspiration, under the name of the Order of ‘Ransom, or of Mercy for the redemption of captives.’ Upon this Raymund at once set out for Barcelona, there to embrace that institute so full of brotherly charity. Thus enrolled in the army of holy religion, he persevered in perpetual virginity, which he had already consecrated to the blessed Virgin. He excelled also in every other virtue, most especially in charity towards those Christians who were living in misery as slaves of the pagans. He was sent to Africa to redeem them, and freed many from slavery. But when he had exhausted his money, rather than abandon others who were in danger of losing their faith, he gave himself up to the barbarians as a pledge for their ransom. Burning with a most ardent desire for the salvation of souls, be converted several Muslims to Christ by his preaching. On this account he was thrown into a close prison, and after many tortures his lips were pierced through and fastened together with an iron padlock, which cruel martyrdom he endured for a long time.
This and his other noble deeds spread the fame of his sanctity far and near, so that Gregory IX determined to enrol him in the august college of the cardinals of the holy Roman Church. When raised to that dignity the man of God shrank from all pomp and clung always to religious humility. On his way to Rome, as soon as he reached Cardona, he was attacked by his last illness, and earnestly begged to be strengthened by the Sacraments of the Church. As his illness grew worse and the priest delayed to come, angels appeared, clothed in the religious habit of his Order, and refreshed him with the saving Viaticum. Having received It he gave thanks to God, and passed to our Lord on the last Sunday of August in 1240. Contentions arose concerning the place where he should be buried. His coffin was therefore placed upon a blind mule and by the will of God it was taken to the chapel of Saint Nicholas, that it might be buried in that place where he had first begun a more perfect life. A convent of his Order was built on the spot, and there famous for many signs and miracles he is honoured by the concourse of all the faithful of Catalonia, who come there to fulfil their vows.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
August closes as it began, with a feast of deliverance, as though that were the divine seal set by eternal Wisdom upon this month — the mouth when holy Church makes the works and ways of divine Wisdom the special object of her contemplation.
Upon the fall of our first parents and their expulsion from Paradise, the Word and Wisdom of God, that is, the second Person of the blessed Trinity, began the great work of our deliverance —that magnificent work of human redemption which, by an all-gracious, eternal decree of the three divine Persons, was to be wrought out by the Son of God in our flesh. And as that blessed Saviour, in His infinite wisdom, made spontaneous choice of sorrows, of sufferings, and of death on a cross, as the best means of our redemption, so has He always allotted to His best loved friends, the kind of life which He had deliberately chosen for Himself, that is, the way of the cross. And the nearest and dearest to Him were those who were predestined, like His blessed Mother, the Mater Dolorosa, to have the honour of being most like Himself, the Man of sorrows. Hence the toils and trials of the greatest saints. Hence the great deliverances wrought by them, and their heroic victories over the world and over the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
On the feasts of Saints Raymund of Pegnafort and Peter Nolasco we saw something of the origin of the illustrious Order to which Raymund Nonnatus added such glory. Soon the august foundress herself, our Lady of Mercy, will come in person to receive the expression of the world’s gratitude for so many benefits.
TO what a length, O illustrious saint, did you follow the counsel of the wise man! ‘The bands of wisdom,’ says he, ‘are a healthful binding’ (Ecclesiasticus vi. 31). And, not satisfied with putting ‘your feet into her fetters and your neck into her chains,’ (Ecclesiasticus vi. 25), in the joy of you love you offered your lips to the dreadful padlock, not mentioned by the son of Sirach. But what a reward is yours now that this Wisdom of the Father, whose twofold precept of charity you so fully carried out, inebriates you with the torrent of eternal delights, adorning your brow with the glory and grace which radiate from her own beauty! We would fain be forever with you near that throne of light. Teach us, then, how to walk, in this world, by the beautiful ways and peaceable paths of Wisdom. Deliver our souls, if they be still captive in sin. Break the chains of our self-love, and give us instead those blessed bands of Wisdom which are humility, abnegation, self-forgetfulness, love of our brethren for God’s sake, and love of God for His own sake.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Treves, the birthday of St. Paulimis, a bishop, who was exiled for the Catholic faith by the Arian emperor Constantius in the time of the Arian persecution. By having to change the place of his exile which was beyond the limits of Christendom, he became wearied unto death, and finally, dying in Phrygia, received a crown from the Lord for his blessed martyrdom.
Also the holy martyrs Robustian and Mark.
At Transaquae, among the Marsi near lake Celano, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cresidius, priest, and his companions, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Maximinus.
At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the Saints Theodotus, Rufina and Ammia. The first two were the parents of the martyr St. Mamas, who was born in prison, and who Ammia brought up.
At Athens, St. Aristides, most celebrated for his faith and wisdom, who presented to the emperor Hadrian a treatise on the Christian religion containing the exposition of our doctrine. In the presence of the emperor he also delivered a discourse in which he clearly demonstrated that Jesus Christ is the only God.
At Auxerre, St. Optatus, bishop and confessor.
In England, St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne. When St. Cuthbert, then a shepherd, saw his soul going up to heaven, he left his sheep and became a monk.
At Nusco, St. Amatus, bishop.
On Mount Senario near Florence, blessed Bonajuncta, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave up his soul into the hands of the Lord while discoursing to his brethren on the Passion of Our Saviour.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
