Saint Raymund of Peñafort, Confessor
S. Raymundi de Penafort Confessoris
Saint Raymund of Peñafort was a Spanish priest of the Order of Preachers, a renowned master of canon law, confessor to a Pope, and a tireless labourer for the freeing of Christian captives. He lived to a great age and died at Barcelona in the year 1275.
Saint Raymund of Peñafort was born near Barcelona about the year 1175, of a noble Catalan family. Gifted and devout, he taught philosophy at Barcelona while still young, and afterward went to Bologna, then the foremost school of law in Christendom, where he became a celebrated master of both civil and canon law. Yet in the midst of learned honours he was drawn to a deeper service of God, and in the fullness of years entered the newly founded Order of Saint Dominic.
Lawyer, religious, and counsellor of souls
Already past the age of forty-five, Raymund received the Dominican habit at Barcelona and gave himself to preaching and to the hearing of confessions. His mastery of the law was placed at the service of the Church and of souls: he composed a celebrated manual for confessors, the Summa de casibus pœnitentiæ, which guided the practice of penance for generations. Called to Rome by Pope Gregory IX, he served as the Pope’s confessor and was charged with gathering and arranging the scattered decrees of the Roman Pontiffs into an orderly collection, the Decretals, which long remained a foundation of the Church’s canon law.
Master General and friend of captives
Raymund declined the dignity of an archbishopric, but he could not refuse the wish of his brethren, who in 1238 chose him Master General of the Order of Preachers. In that office he revised the constitutions of the Order before resigning, on account of his age, after two years. He had a great part, with Saint Peter Nolasco and King James of Aragon, in the work of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, founded to redeem Christians held captive. To the end of his long life he laboured for the conversion of unbelievers and the instruction of the faithful, and he died at Barcelona on the sixth of January, 1275, having passed his hundredth year. He was canonised in 1601.
The Collect
O God, who didst choose blessed Raymund to be an eminent minister of the sacrament of Penance, and didst wondrously bring him across the waves of the sea: grant, we beseech Thee; that by his intercession we may be enabled to bring forth worthy fruits of penance, and to attain unto the haven of everlasting salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Deus, qui beátum Raymúndum pœniténtiæ sacraménti insígnem minístrum elegísti, et per maris undas mirabíliter traduxísti: concéde; ut eius intercessióne dignos pœniténtiæ fructus fácere, et ad ætérnæ salútis portum perveníre valeámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
Patronage
Saint Raymund of Peñafort is venerated as a patron of canon lawyers and of the science of canon law.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar, this feast is observed on 7 January.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Raymund of Peñafort?
In the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 23 January as a Third-Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 7 January, near the day of his death.
Who was Saint Raymund of Peñafort?
He was a Spanish Dominican priest and a great master of canon law, confessor to Pope Gregory IX, compiler of the Decretals, and a co-labourer in the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the freeing of Christian captives. He died at Barcelona in 1275, well past his hundredth year.
Why is he a patron of canon lawyers?
At the command of Pope Gregory IX he gathered and arranged the decrees of the Popes into the ordered collection known as the Decretals, which long served as a foundation of the Church’s law; for this and for his learned writings he is honoured as a patron of canonists.
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