St Raymond Pennafort

Raymond went to school at the Cathedral and became a famous teacher of Philosophy when he was 20 years old. He left his job to join the Dominican Order and he became a priest.  He then studied law and became a lawyer for the Church, writing laws that the Church followed for many years. The Pope made Raymond Archbishop of Aragon, even though Raymond did not want to be a ruler in the Church.  He struggled a lot being the Archbishop, because he did not like the attention and honour that people gave him, he was too humble.  He was able to stop being Archbishop after only 2 years and then he returned to the work that he loved, helping Christians get closer to Jesus through sharing the Gospel.  He helped missionaries by teaching them to speak new languages, so that they could tell lots of people about Jesus.  He travelled to many countries where people did not know about Jesus or were choosing not to follow Him and he shared the Gospel with them and told them about God's love for them. Many people came to know Jesus because of the love and kindness he showed them.  He love Mary, the Mother of Jesus very much and started an Order of Priest called the Order of Our Lady of Ransom.  This Order helped share the Gospel with people who did not know about Jesus.  St. Raymond was almost 100 years old when he died. He was declared the patron of Church lawyers because of the work he did in creating the laws of the Church.