St. Raymond of Peñafort

St. Raymond of Penyafort was born about 1175 at Peñafort in Catalonia, Spain, of a noble family, and became a brilliant scholar and teacher of both civil and canon law at Bologna before entering the Order of Preachers, founded by St. Dominic, about 1222. A man of vast legal learning joined to deep humility, he devoted his gifts wholly to the service of the Church and of souls.

At the command of Pope Gregory IX he undertook the immense task of gathering and ordering the scattered decrees and laws of the Church into a single systematic collection, the Decretals, which became the foundation of canon law for nearly seven centuries. He also wrote an influential handbook for confessors, promoted the ransoming of Christian captives, encouraged St. Thomas Aquinas in his defense of the faith against unbelievers, and served briefly and reluctantly as head of the whole Dominican order, for which he revised the constitutions. He lived to a great age, dying in 1275, and was canonized in 1601. He is a patron of canon lawyers and of confessors, celebrated on 7 January.