St Raymond of Penafort: Life, Patron Saint of, Prayer, Feast

St Raymond of Penafort (1175-1275) was a Catalan Dominican, the third master general of the Order of Preachers, who gathered the laws of the Church into the five books of the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX and wrote the first great handbook for confessors. He lived to be almost a hundred, refused an archbishopric, resigned the government of his order, and spent his long life in the confessional, in preaching and in work for the conversion of the Moors. In the calendar of 1962 his feast falls on 23 January; here is his life, what he is patron of, the miracle the Church still mentions in his Collect, and the full prayer of his Mass.

Who was St Raymond of Penafort?

Raymond (in Catalan Ramon, often written Raymund in older English books) was born in 1175 at Peñafort in Catalonia, Butler says (the Breviary calls him simply a man of Barcelona), of the family of Peñafort, which claimed descent from the counts of Barcelona and was allied to the kings of Aragon. The spelling of the name varies: Penafort, Peñafort, Penyafort, Pennafort; it is the same saint.

He was so quick at his studies, Butler tells us, that at twenty he was already teaching philosophy at Barcelona, and teaching it without fee. He then went to Bologna, the great school of law of the Middle Ages, to perfect himself in canon and civil law, took the degree of doctor, and taught there with the same disinterestedness. The lessons of his feast in the Breviary add that the Bishop of Barcelona, Berengarius, passing through Bologna on his way home from Rome, begged him to return with him; Raymond came back, was made a canon of the cathedral, and in 1219, Butler says, archdeacon and official of the diocese. The Breviary notes that from his youth he had a particular love for the Mother of God, and did all he could to increase her honour.

A doctor of law becomes a Dominican novice

In 1222, eight months after the death of St Dominic and in his forty-seventh year, Raymond took the habit of the Friars Preachers at Barcelona. No novice, Butler says, was more humble or obedient. He asked his superiors to impose on him a severe penance for the satisfaction he had sometimes taken in his own teaching. They gave him one he did not expect: to write a collection of cases of conscience for the use of confessors. The result was the Summa de casibus poenitentialibus, the first work of its kind, which guided priests in the confessional for centuries.

St Raymond of Penafort and confession

The Church remembers Raymond above all as a confessor in both senses of the word: a saint who was not a martyr, and a priest given to hearing confessions. His Collect calls him "an eminent minister of the sacrament of Penance". Pope Gregory IX, who called him to Rome in 1230, made him his chaplain, his penitentiary and his own confessor. Butler records the penance Raymond gave the Pope: to receive, hear and settle at once every petition presented by the poor.

After his return to Spain he went on preaching and hearing confessions, and "the number of conversions of which he was the instrument," Butler writes, "is known only to Him who by His grace was the author of them." For anyone preparing to receive the sacrament he served so well, our guide on how to go to Confession and our examination of conscience are the practical companions to his feast.

The Decretals of Gregory IX

Gregory IX also ordered Raymond to gather into one body the decrees of the popes and councils issued since the collection of Gratian, which lay scattered in many compilations. In three years he completed the task, and the five books of the Decretals were promulgated by the Pope in 1234. Until the Code of Canon Law of 1917, Butler observes, this compilation was regarded as the best-arranged part of the body of canon law, and canonists usually chose it as the text for their commentaries.

In 1235 the Pope named him Archbishop of Tarragona. Raymond resisted with tears and entreaties, the anxiety made him seriously ill, and the Pope at last excused him, on condition that he recommend a worthy man in his place.

Master general of the Dominicans

Back in Barcelona, Raymond returned to his cell, his preaching and his confessional. In 1238 the general chapter of the order, meeting at Bologna, elected him third master general, after the death of Blessed Jordan of Saxony. He visited the houses of the order on foot, without relaxing any of his austerities, and put the constitutions of the Friars Preachers into clearer order, with notes on the doubtful passages; his code was approved by three general chapters.

At the chapter of Paris in 1239 he had a rule passed that the resignation of a superior, made for just reasons, should be accepted. He had his own case in mind: the following year he resigned, pleading that he was sixty-five. He still had thirty-four years to live.

Work for the conversion of the Moors

Raymond spent those years opposing heresy and working for the conversion of the Moors and of the Jews of Spain. He persuaded St Thomas Aquinas to write his Summa contra Gentiles, a defence of the faith for those who do not share the Christian Scriptures (the life of the Angelic Doctor is told in our page on St Thomas Aquinas). He had Arabic and Hebrew taught in several houses of his order, and founded friaries among the Moors, at Tunis and at Murcia.

In 1256 he wrote to his master general that ten thousand Saracens had received baptism. The Breviary also records that he advised King James I of Aragon to establish the Holy Office of the Inquisition in his kingdoms; Butler, honest as ever, adds that on one occasion he was accused, "it is to be feared not without some reason", of compromising a rabbi by a trick.

St Raymond and the Order of Our Lady of Ransom

Tradition associates Raymond with St Peter Nolasco in founding the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, the Mercedarians, devoted to ransoming Christians held captive by the Moors. The lessons of his feast tell the story as the Church read it in 1962: Peter Nolasco, whose confessor Raymond was, gave his fortune to the work at his urging; Our Lady appeared to Peter, to Raymond and to King James I of Aragon, asking for an order for the redemption of captives; the three founded it together, Raymond wrote its rule, obtained its approval from Gregory IX, and clothed Peter with the habit as its first master general.

Butler warns that every detail of this story has been disputed, for centuries, between Dominican and Mercedarian historians: the date of the foundation, the part Raymond played in it, and the triple vision itself, which the Dominican historian Vacas Galindo held was unheard of until two or three hundred years later. The Breviary makes Raymond Peter Nolasco's confessor, and Butler, in his life of St Peter Nolasco, calls him the spiritual director of both Peter and King James and a zealous promoter of the work.

The miracle of the cloak

The best-known story of his life is set on the island of Majorca, where Raymond had accompanied King James I. The King, who led a disorderly life with women, promised amendment and did not keep his promise, and Raymond asked leave to return to Barcelona. The King refused, and forbade anyone, on pain of death, to give him passage. Raymond said to his companion:

"An earthly king withholds the means of flight, but the King of Heaven will supply them."

He went down to the shore, spread his cloak upon the water, tied up one corner of it to his staff for a sail, made the sign of the cross and stepped onto it, while his companion stood trembling on the beach. In six hours, the story goes, he reached the harbour of Barcelona, gathered up his cloak dry, put it on and slipped through the crowd into his friary. A chapel and a tower were built where he was believed to have landed.

The miracle is recorded in the bull of his canonization and in the lessons of the Breviary, and the Collect of his feast alludes to it: God "didst wondrously lead him across the waves of the sea". Butler, for his part, notes that the evidence for many points of his life is so unsatisfactory that it is hard to give unreserved credence to the voyage from Majorca. We give it as the Church's liturgy gives it, and as Butler weighs it.

How did St Raymond of Penafort die?

In his last illness Raymond was visited by two kings, Alfonso of Castile and James of Aragon, who received his final blessing. He died at Barcelona on 6 January 1275, in the hundredth year of his age. The two kings and their families attended his funeral, and Butler says his tomb was made "far more illustrious by miracles". He was canonized by Pope Clement VIII, whose bull was published in 1601.

The prayer of St Raymond of Penafort (Missal of 1962)

His Mass is from the Common of a Confessor not a Bishop, Os justi, with the Gospel of the faithful servants who wait for their master's return (St Luke xii. 35-40); the Collect is proper to him.

Collect, 23 January

Deus, qui beatum Raymundum poenitentiae sacramenti insignem ministrum elegisti, et per maris undas mirabiliter traduxisti: concede; ut ejus intercessione dignos poenitentiae fructus facere, et ad aeternae salutis portum pervenire valeamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

O God, who didst choose blessed Raymund to be an eminent minister of the sacrament of Penance, and didst wondrously lead him across the waves of the sea: grant that by his intercession we may bring forth fruits worthy of penance, and come to the haven of eternal 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.

The prayer joins his two titles to glory, the confessional and the sea, and turns them into a petition for us: to bring forth "fruits worthy of penance", the words of St John the Baptist (St Luke iii. 8), and to reach the harbour of salvation as he reached the harbour of Barcelona. It is the simplest prayer to St Raymond of Penafort for any day, and a good one to say before Confession.

When is the feast day of St Raymond of Penafort?

In the calendar of 1962 the feast of St Raymond of Penafort falls on 23 January, a feast of the third class in white vestments, with a commemoration of St Emerentiana, virgin and martyr. The day of his death, 6 January, is the feast of the Epiphany. The calendar of 1969 moved his feast to 7 January, the day after his death. You will find his feast among the others of the year in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962, and his place among the saints in our guide to the Catholic saints.

What is St Raymond of Penafort the patron saint of?

Because of the Decretals and his lifelong work as a canonist, St Raymond of Penafort is commonly honoured as the patron of canon lawyers, and more widely of lawyers. The liturgy itself honours him above all as a minister of the sacrament of Penance, and confessors have every reason to count him as theirs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Raymond of Penafort?

A Catalan priest and doctor of law who became a Dominican in 1222, compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, wrote the first great handbook for confessors, served as master general of the Dominicans from 1238 to 1240, and died at Barcelona in 1275, almost a hundred years old.

What is St Raymond of Penafort known for?

For the Decretals, which remained the core of the Church's law until the Code of 1917; for his Summa of cases of conscience for confessors; for his part in the foundation of the Mercedarians; and for the miracle of the cloak on which, tradition says, he crossed from Majorca to Barcelona.

What miracles are attributed to St Raymond of Penafort?

The most famous is the crossing from Majorca to Barcelona on his cloak, recorded in the bull of his canonization and alluded to in his Collect. The same bull records other miracles at his tomb.

Is there a quote from St Raymond of Penafort?

The best known is his word on the shore of Majorca, as Butler gives it: "An earthly king withholds the means of flight, but the King of Heaven will supply them."

When was St Raymond of Penafort canonized?

By Pope Clement VIII, whose bull of canonization was published in 1601.

Did St Raymond of Penafort found the Mercedarians?

The lessons of his feast say he founded the Order of Our Lady of Ransom together with St Peter Nolasco and King James I of Aragon, and wrote its rule. Historians have long disputed how large his part was; the Breviary and Butler agree that he was St Peter Nolasco's confessor, and Butler calls him a zealous promoter of the work.

The Iter Fidei app carries the calendar of 1962 with every feast and commemoration, the Roman Missal with the prayers of each day and the Breviary with the lessons of St Raymond, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 23 January (St Raymund of Penafort) and 28 January (St Peter Nolasco). Roman Breviary (edition before 1960), 23 January, lessons of the second nocturn (in the Breviary of 1962 this third-class feast has a single, contracted lesson). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 23 January, and Common of a Confessor not a Bishop. Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, St Luke iii. 8 and xii. 35-40.