August 31 - Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Quick Facts- Spanish nobility.
- Well educated, his father planned a career for Raymond in the royal court in Aragon.
- When Raymond felt drawn to religious life, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms.
- However, Raymond spent his time with the shepherds and workers, studying and praying until his father gave up the idea of making his son a wordly success.
- Mercedarian priest, receiving the habit from Saint Peter Nolasco, the order's founder.
- Master-general of Mercedarian Order.
- Spent his entire estate ransoming Christians, then surrended as a hostage to free another.
- Sentenced to death by impalement, he was spared because of his large ransom value.
- Imprisoned and tortured, he still managed to convert some of his guards.
- To keep him from preaching the faith, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and attached padlock.
- Eventually ransomed, returning to Barcelona in 1239.
- Created cardinal by Pope Gregory IX, Raymond continued to live as a mendicant monk.
- He died while en route to Rome to answer a papal summons.
