St. Raymond the Unborn
Divine Office: Lessons from Matins
This Raymond is commonly called the Unborn, because his was one of the rare cases in which the child is not brought into the world in the course of nature, but by a surgical operation after the death of the mother. He was the son of godly and noble parents, at Portel in the diocese of Urgel in Catalonia. The tokens of his holy afterlife appeared even in his childhood. The things that delight children, and the attractions of the world, had no charm for him. He was so earnest in godliness that all men marveled at his habits of premature old age. As he grew older, he devoted himself to the study of letters but, at the command of his father, turned to farming. He often went to the Chapel of St. Nicolas, in the suburbs of Portel, to visit the sacred image of the Mother of God, which is still sought with great tenderness by the faithful. There he poured forth his soul in prayer and earnestly entreated the Mother of God herself to be pleased to take him for her son, to show him the way wherein it would be safe for him to walk, and to teach him the science of the saints.
And the most gracious Maiden was not deaf to his prayers. From her, he understood that it would please her very well if he would join the Religious Order that had just been founded at her own inspiration, styled as "Ransom" or "of Mercy," for buying up and freeing slaves. As soon as he had received this intimation from her, he went to Barcelona and entered the Institute so nobly dedicated to love for our neighbor. Once enlisted in the regular army, he guarded unspotted forever the virginity which he had already consecrated to the Blessed Virgin forever. But he was a bright and shining light of all other good words and works, especially of tender compassion for Christians who were passing a life of grievous bondage in the possession of unbelieving masters. To free such, he was sent into Africa, and delivered many. But his money ran short, and as there were still many in imminent danger of denying the faith, he pawned himself. He was enkindled with a most vehement longing for the salvation of souls, and by his exhortations brought divers Mohammedans to Christ. The Moors, therefore, threw him into close prison and subjected him to various tortures; at last, they made holes through his lips and locked them together with an iron padlock, a horrid cruelty that he long bore.
On account of these, and other brave deeds of a Saint far and wide, Gregory IX was moved thereby to make Raymond a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; but in this place of honor, the man of God shrank from all outward show and clung ever tightly to the lowliness that beseemeth a religious man. He had started for Rome [in obedience to the command of the Pope] but had only got as far as Cardona, six miles from Barcelona, when he was seized with his last illness and earnestly called for the strengthening Sacraments of the Church. But his position became critical, and the priest had not arrived. Then angels came unto him, clad in the habit of his own Order, and ministered unto him the wholesome provision for the last journey. When he had taken it, he gave God thanks, and departed hence to be ever with the Lord. It was the last Lord's Day in August, 1240. After his death, some dispute arose as to where his body should be buried; so they shut it up in a box, and laid it upon a blind mule, and the beast was guided by God to carry it to the chapel of St. Nicolas, that he might be buried where he had laid the foundations of his nobler life. There was built there a convent of his Order, and the faithful come together thither from all parts of Catalonia to honour him, and he is famous for divers signs and wonders.
