Raymundus van Peñafort (circa 1175 - January 6, 1275) was a Spanish Dominican. Because he was a great connoisseur of canonical law, Pope Gregory IX made him compile an ecclesiastical bill.
Raymundus was born at Barcelona's Peñafort Castle. He studied at the cathedral school in Barcelona and then studied theology and philosophy. Around 1210 he went to Bologna in church and studied Roman law. Between 1218 and 1221 he taught canonical (church) law there. In Bologna he came into contact with the Dominicans, and when he returned to Barcelona in 1222, he accepted this order. In 1230, the Pope brought him to Rome to act as a judge at the Penitentiaria, one of the papal courts. At the same time, he was commissioned to collect and edit the many thousands of decrees, papal sentences in letter form, into a well-structured ecclesiastical code of conduct. The result, the Decretals Gregorii IX, usually called Liber Extra, appeared in 1234. The Pope stated that only these decretes would still have legal force (exclusive effect). Gregory IX immediately sent copies of the Liber Extra to the universities of Bologna and Paris.
Raymundus wrote several legal treaties, such as a Summa de matrimonio, a Summa de casibus poenitentiae and other smaller works. In 1238 he was elected chief of the Dominicans. He focused on improving the constitutions of this order. In 1240 he laid down his job as a Dominican magistrate and returned to Barcelona. He is committed to improving the study and education within his order. He declined a nomination to Archbishop of Tarragona. He regularly advised King Jacobus I of Aragón. The order of the Mercedarians calculated Raymundus as co-founder because of his support for this monastic order. At a very high age, he died in Barcelona in 1275, where he was buried in the cathedral. He was probably the oldest medieval lawyer. In 1601, Pope Clemens VIII declared him holy. His holiday falls on January 7th. With Ivo Hélory he is the patron saint of lawyers.
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