7th January is the saint’s day for Raymond of
Penafort, a Spanish monk who was an expert in Church law and who had the rare
distinction of living to be 100 years old – the fact that he lived mostly in
the 13th century making this all the more remarkable.
Raymond was born in 1175 in Aragon. He trained as a lawyer
and studied at the universities of Barcelona and Bologna. However, at the age
of 47 he changed tack completely and became a Dominican monk, his reason being
that he reckoned that he was getting too full of himself and needed to learn to
be more humble.
With this end in mind he asked the abbot of the monastery to
give him a task that would curb his inclination towards vanity. He probably
thought that he would be given menial tasks around the monastery such as
cleaning or working in the kitchens, but the abbot had a better idea. Knowing
Raymond’s background as a lawyer, he decided to put this talent to good use and
told Raymond to gather together all the cases that had been brought before the
Church courts that dealt with the commitment of sins, the idea being to produce
a body of case law that could be used to ensure that the Church dealt with
transgressions in a consistent and just way. Raymond’s work in this area was to
prove to be highly influential for centuries to come.
© John Welford
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