The crowd on shore burst into applause. Incredible! A miracle! A man standing on a raft with a cloak for a sail had just crossed the sea from the island of Majorca to Barcelona, Spain, a distance of 120 miles in six hours. The mysterious man stepped ashore, put his cloak back on and disappeared into a nearby Dominican convent. He was the chaplain of King James of Aragon. Back in Majorca, the adulterous monarch had refused to dismiss his paramour and the saint threatened to leave regardless of the king's order insisting he stay. "Your Majesty you are causing a scandal. Since you forbid my departure from your presence, I shall ask God to help me return to Barcelona."

And the crossing of the sea on his cloak is the story of the miracle in a nutshell.

On Good Friday in 1222, at the age of 47, Raymond entered the Dominican Order which was then in the springtime of its youth. St. Dominic had just died and Blessed Jordan was elected second Master General. The peace and quiet sought by the new friar was short-lived. He was summoned to the Vatican in 1229 as confessor and penitentiary of Pope Gregory IX. The Holy Father imposed upon him the task of collecting and editing the countless papal decrees of preceding centuries. The scholarly friar accomplished the arduous assignment in three years, but it resulted in weakened health. He was again haunted by nostalgia for his friar's cell and obtained permission to return to Barcelona. As he left the papal court on foot, someone remarked: "This humble friar goes away just as he came: just as poor and just as modest as he arrived."

The Moors were devastating the Christian Church with fire and sword, scouring land and sea in the name of Allah. Islam was on the march; Christendom was in crisis. Inspired by Our Lord and Our Lady, Raymond founded a new religious Order in collaboration with Peter Nolasco and King James. Gregory IX approved the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption of Christians in 1235. Raymond organized its constitution and guided its first General, St. Peter Nolasco. King James provided the first monastery and religious habitats. At Raymond's suggestion, the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon founded Dominican monastery-schools for the study of Hebrew and Arabic in Spain and in Africa. To these schools young friars were sent to train for evangelization among the Moors. At Raymond's request, St. Thomas Aquinas composed the famous work SUMMA CONTRA GENTES, (or Synopsis "against the pagans") a synthesis of Catholic doctrine for conversion of pagans, in defense of the faith. The saint himself undertook a personal crusade of preaching, hearing confessions, and reconciling lapsed and apostate Catholics. He won thousands of souls to Jesus Christ. He was to be followed in the next century by a greater convert-maker than himself, his Dominican brother, St. Vincent Ferrer, also known as the "Angel of the Apocalypse."

St. Raymond was born in the family castle at Penyafort, near Barcelona, Spain, in 1175. Endowed with a keen intellect, he attended the prestigious University of Bologna in Italy, and quickly became a professor, occupying the chair of civil and canon law. While teaching there he was captivated by the fiery preaching and the holy lives of the founders of the Order of Preachers, St. Dominic, Blessed Reginald and Blessed Jordan of Saxony. He was destined to rival them in sanctity and service to the church. After lecturing in Bologna for three years, he spent the next three as canon lawyer for the bishop of Barcelona at the bidding of Pope Honorius III. But his soul was not at peace as he yearned for a closer union with Christ in the silence and seclusion of the cloister.

At left: Penyafort Castle, Spain. More photos of the location at Panoramio and FestaCatalunya.

When Blessed Jordan drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of the Holy Land in 1238, Raymond was elected the third Master General only to resign two years later due to poor health. He had revised the constitutions of the young Order of Preachers and continued to pour out a luminous stream of treaties on civil and common law, Scripture and related subjects now edited under the general title of the SUMMA OF ST. RAYMOND. The "Summa", (a synopsis), of moral cases for study purposes, became the standard collection of canon law and remained in force for almost 700 years. As such he is justly hailed as the patron saint of canon lawyers. To reward the saint's great service to the Church, Gregory IX appointed him archbishop of Tarragona but the humble friar declined the post.



Raymond also wrote Summa de poenitentia, a treatise on confession and contrition that influenced the imposition of penances throughout the Middle Ages; and was a source text for Chaucer's "A Parson's Tale" - the last story of the Canterbury Tales.

St. Raymond was deemed the greatest canonist of his age. The royalty and hierarchy of Spain consulted him on matters of Church and State. In the course of his life, six popes honored him with titles and dignities, even bidding him select new bishops. He died on January 6, 1275, at the remarkable age of 100, and his remains lie in a dedicated chapel to his name within the gothic Cathedral of St. Eulalia and the Holy Cross in Barcelona. Clement VIII canonized him in 1601. In art he is depicted with key in hand to symbolize his office as papal penitentiary, and also as a simple friar sailing on his cloak away from the lustful monarch.

His miraculous cures were reported during and after his life.

• A man who suffered migraine headaches for years was completely cured when Raymond laid hands on his head.
• The disfigured face of a young girl was restored to normal appearance when it was covered with the cloak of the saint.
• Dust from his tomb is used to restore health to the sick.

Such was the power of the saintly friar's prayers.