The 17th century English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, once said that human beings in their natural state without order or society experienced a life that was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” This month’s saint understood the importance of the law, especially when it protects society allowing for the raising of families and the pursuit of holiness. Just as lawyers are supposed to uphold the integrity of the law, canon lawyers do the same for the Catholic Church! St. Raymond of Penafort, who was a Dominican friar and canon lawyer, compiled an early form of what would become the Code of Canon Law which are the laws that govern the Church today. By doing this, the saint provided stability in a time when Christians had to defend their homeland against the constant and relentless Islamic invasions from the east. While the Crusaders protected the lives of the innocent, those like St. Raymond preserved the soul of Christendom and ensured that the one true faith would continue on for generations to come.
Raymond was born to a noble family in Barcelona, Spain with ties to the Royal Aragon family in 1185. He was a brilliant child growing up so it was no surprise that his love of learning lead him to becoming a professor of canon, or Church, law which he did for fifteen years. While he was teaching, he was working on a document on canon law because he saw that it was needed. He felt a calling to the clergy and was attracted to the Dominican Order due to the preaching of Blessed Reginald, who was the prior of the Dominicans of Bologna. It was a perfect fit for him and he grew to become the model clergyman with a zeal for teaching. Being in the order helped him to develop a love for serving the poor whom he credits with inspiring him to perform acts of charity. Even with his duties as a Dominican, it did not stop him from writing a manual laying out the guidelines for priests regarding the Sacrament of reconciliation. His work would become distributed and widely used during the Middle Ages.
The friar’s accomplishments and faithfulness caught the attention of the Vatican and he was summoned to Rome by Pope Gregory IX who decided appoint him as the papal chaplain where one of his main responsibilities was reviewing cases related to canon law. His second job was to rewrite and condense decrees from previous popes on canon law into one formal document. It was a very difficult task because a few of these decrees would repeat, some were disjointed, and others did not have much context to go by so he had to flesh them out. Raymond finally finished it in 1231 and Pope Gregory IX declared in a Papal Bull that it was to be considered authoritative and should be taught in schools. These five books would be used for centuries until the Code of Canon Law was established in the 1900s. The pope wanted to reward the Dominican friar with a promotion to bishop, but Raymond politely refused wishing to return home.
He returned to Spain in 1236 and briefly served as the master general of the Dominicans for two years where he couldn’t help, but revise the order’s constitution. During this time, Raymond saw the threat of Islamic conquest and he asked Thomas Aquinas to write the Summa Contra Gentiles which was a detailed book countering the theological objections from non-believers. To get a sense of the time, the Islamic armies were aggressively moving to the West following the death of Mohammed to continue his legacy of conquest. If the Crusaders failed, it would lead to the erasure of culture and tradition which was why most of the knights were volunteers heeding the call of the pope to defend Christendom. Raymond was not a warrior, but he did establish schools teaching Hebrew and Arabic to train missionaries so they could help liberate Christian captives. The reason why both languages were taught was because there were some Jews merchants who worked with the Islamists to subvert Christian governments.
Raymond saw that there was a need for people to see the stark differences between Rabbinical Judaism and Christianity so he convinced the king of Spain to hold a public debate to allow both sides to present their cases. The debate allowed for complete freedom of speech and the Dominicans chose one of their own who converted from Judaism to Christianity to represent them. Some of the main topics that were discussed included whether the promised Messiah appeared, whether the promised Messiah is a divine being, and whether Christians held the true faith. Friar Raymond would live the remainder of his life serving the poor and he died at the age of 100 in 1275 of natural causes.
If we find that we are having trouble finding peace in God, we can follow St. Raymond’s example and ask for his intercession with the following prayer:
“O redeemer of captive slaves,
those enslaved to sin
and those enslaved
by the clutches of the world –
preach to us this day
the freedom found
under the Cross of Christ
and in the repentance of heart
blessed by the grace
upon the Church.
Teach us well
the path to Heaven,
which is wrought not in comfort and peace
but in struggle against sin,
in the laying down of our lives
before our persecutors.
Ransom us from wayward
thoughts and actions,
and from the snares
of the adversary
who waits for our misstep.
In Christ alone
may we find our rest.
Amen.”
Stay awesome and blossom 🌱
By: anh Daniel
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