Raimund Nonnatus

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Gonzalez de la Vega: Raimund Nonnatus, 1673

Saint Raimund Nonnatus , also Raymund or Reimund (in Catalan Sant Ramon Nonat , in Spanish San Ramón Nonato ) (* around 1202 in Portell near Lleida ; † August 31, 1240 in Cardona near Barcelona ) was a Catalan saint and cardinal (?) Of the Catholic Church, which in the course of the Reconquista campaigned for life for the ransom or the liberation of Christian prisoners from Islamic captivity in Moorish Spain and North Africa. His feast day is August 31st .

General

  • The name "Rai-mund" means Old High German : (Rai) advice and (mund) protection.
  • St. Raimund is the patron saint of midwives and the innocent accused. He is called for a happy delivery and is supposed to help against puerperal fever .
  • In the pictorial representation, the figure often wears the carmine-red and white costume, the three-crowned martyr's palm and the monstrance .
  • He is credited with numerous miracles before and after his death.
  • The place Saint-Raymond in Québec ( Canada ) was named after him, as well as San Ramón de la Nueva Orán in Argentina and a small village in northern New Mexico , USA . Numerous places in Chile , El Salvador or Peru also bear the name "San Ramon".
  • The city of Juana Díaz in Puerto Rico celebrates its city saint "San Ramón Nonato" a year. a. with a procession (his statue is carried along) and a wood carving competition.
  • Numerous Catholic churches, church bells, schools or midwifery schools - especially in Spanish-speaking areas - are dedicated to him.
  • In Toulouse there is an antiques museum "Musée Saint-Raymond".
  • In Santa Barbara (California) there is an old chapel, the "San Ramon Chapel"
  • The corresponding weather rule is: "Sankt Raimund drives away the thunderstorms."

Childhood and youth

Raimund was - as his nickname shows - “not born” (Latin: “non natus”). His mother died in his birth and he was delivered by caesarean section ; the Count of Cardona cut the boy out of the already dead mother's body with a dagger. His father was Arnau de Cardona, whose probably fifth son he was. As a child and teenager, he tended a flock of sheep not far from a Romanesque hermitage. There a portrait of Mary was venerated in the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas. Raimund began here with a lifelong and special devotion to the Blessed Virgin. In general, he showed a penchant for the spiritual life early on, although his father had determined a career as a courtier at the Aragonese royal court for him . Since Raimund opposed these plans, his father gave him the management of an estate. But even that could not remove the son from his inner voice, so that the father finally gave up.

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Raymond joined as a young man in Barcelona in 1218 only by the holy Peter Nolasco and Raymond of Peñafort established order of the "Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy" (Ordo beatae Mariae de mercede redemptionis captivorum), the so-called. Mercedarians a -Orden. He was ordained a priest in 1222 by Petrus Nolascus personally. In 1224 the head of the order Petrus Nolascus called the young Raimund to be his constant companion.

Slave liberation

In 1224, Raimund began to ransom about 500 Christian prisoners from the Spanish Moors in southern Spain and in several expeditions to Algeria and Tunis , whom the Muslims kept as slaves . Besides his superior Petrus Nolascus, his role models were the Mercedarian Serapion .

In 1224 he made his first slave liberation trip to Valencia , which at the time was still dominated by Islam. In 1226 he made his first trip to Algeria , where he ransomed 140 Christian slaves. In 1229 he traveled to North Africa and Algeria for the second time. In 1231 he came to Tunis , the capital of the Hafsids (1229–1574). This ruling dynasty ruled in what is now eastern Algeria, Tunisia and Libyan Tripolitania . The ruler of the city of Tunis at that time was Jahja I (1229–1249). In 1232 he came to Bugía. About his last trip to North Africa (1236) it is not known for sure whether it went to Algeria or Tunisia.

As an Islamic hostage

In an effort to free Christian slaves who were seriously ill and threatened with death, he offered himself up as a hostage on various occasions, thus fulfilling the fourth of the rules of the order. He spent several months in excruciating Muslim dungeon. But even imprisonment could not break his will. He not only preached to his fellow prisoners, but also proselytized some Berbers and Moors who converted to the Christian faith. Then - according to legend - one pierced his lips with a glowing iron stake in the market square in Algiers and then locked his mouth with a padlock. The lock was only removed when eating and drinking. Eventually he was sentenced to death by stake in Algiers . However, the Moors immediately tried to get a ransom for the well-known slave and pardoned him as a bastion . He escaped a horrible fate that later his brother, St. Serapion suffered.

The order actually succeeded in ransoming Raimund in 1239 after eight months of imprisonment. But he did not want to leave his sphere of activity and give up the prisoners and slaves. Only an order from the superior of the order, who had chosen him as his successor, induced him to return. In 1239 he returned to Barcelona.

Cardinal and death

In 1239 he was taken over by Pope Gregory IX. (1227–1241) was appointed Cardinal of San Eustachio, at least that is what uncertain sources say. Raimund, who was also appointed by the Pope as a counselor, set out for Rome in 1240, but had barely covered a dozen kilometers when he fell down with a violent fever and had to break off the trip. He died on August 31, 1240 on his sick bed in the mighty stone castle of Cardona (near Barcelona ), which is today a Catholic feast day.

The order, the city of Cardona and the count argued over his body and the place of burial. Since no agreement could be found, a donkey was allowed to decide. The body was laid on his back and the animal trotted to the hermitage of St. Nicholas. Then he was buried in the chapel of S. Nicolás in Portell near his old estate. This chapel has been the oratory in the later built monastery of Sant Ramon de Portell since 1675.

In 1626 Pope Urban VIII arranged for a measurement form for Raimund. On September 30, 1628 he was together with Petrus Nolascus by Gregory IX. beatified . On August 4, 1657, they were both canonized and included in the Roman register of martyrs by Pope Alexander VII. In 1681, Innocent XI extended . Raimund's devotion to the whole church, but this was reduced to Catalonia again in 1969 .

His tomb was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The relics themselves survived the destruction but were stolen in 2007.

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personal data
SURNAME Raimund Nonnatus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raymund; Rhyme; San Ramón Nonato (Spanish); Raymond (English, French)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish saint and cardinal (?) of the Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH around 1202
PLACE OF BIRTH Portell at Lleida
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1240
Place of death Cardona