Catholic · † 1275
Saint Raymond of Penyafort, Priest
Commemorated: January 7
Life
Raymond of Penyafort was born near Barcelona about 1175 and taught canon law at Bologna before joining the Dominicans in 1222. Pope Gregory IX called him to Rome, and in 1234 Raymond published the Decretals, the collection of church law that remained in force until 1917. In 1238 he was elected master of his order, but resigned two years later, pleading his age.
He spent his last decades in Barcelona, encouraging the study of Arabic and Hebrew among the friars. Tradition holds that when King James I of Aragon refused to let him leave Majorca, Raymond spread his cloak on the sea and sailed on it to Barcelona. He died in 1275, about a hundred years old, and was canonized in 1601.
Places
- Place of birth: Santa Margarida i els Monjos
- Place of death: Barcelona
- Place of burial: Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia
Retold briefly in our own words from: Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.