Saint Raymond

Description

Raymond of Penyafort, O.P., (ca. 1175 – 6 January 1275) (Catalan: Sant Ramon de Penyafort, IPA: [ˈsan rəˈmon də ˌpɛɲəˈfɔr]; Spanish: San Raimundo de Peñafort) was a Spanish Dominican friar in the 13th century, who compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canon laws that remained a major part of Church law until the 20th century. He is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church and is the patron saint of lawyers, especially canon lawyers.Raymond of Penyafort was born in Vilafranca del Penedès, a small town near Barcelona, Catalonia, around 1175. Descended from a noble family with ties to the royal house of Aragon, he was educated in Barcelona and at the University of Bologna, where he received doctorates in both civil and canon law. From 1195 to 1210, he taught canon law. In 1210, he moved to Bologna, where he remained until 1222, including three years occupying the Chair of canon law at the university. He came to know the newly founded Dominican Order there.[1] Raymond was attracted to the Dominican Order by the preaching of Blessed Reginald, prior of the Dominicans of Bologna, and received the habit at the age of 47,[2] in the Dominican Convent of Barcelona, to which he had returned from Italy in 1222.