Blessed Raymond Lull Saint of the day for June 26th

(1235 ca. - 28 June 1315)

The story of Blessed Raymond Lull
Raymond worked all his life to promote the missions and died a missionary in North Africa.

Raymond was born in Palma on the island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea. He gained a position in the king's court there. One day a sermon inspired him to dedicate his life to work for the conversion of Muslims in North Africa. He became a secular Franciscan and founded a college where missionaries could learn Arabic which they would need in missions. Retiring to solitude, he spent nine years as a hermit. During that time he wrote on all branches of knowledge, a work that earned him the title of "Illuminated Doctor".

Raymond then made many trips across Europe to interest popes, kings and princes in creating special colleges to prepare future missionaries. It achieved its goal in 1311, when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean chairs in the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. At the age of 79, Raymond went to North Africa in 1314 to become a missionary himself. An angry mob of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants brought him back to Majorca, where he died. Raymond was beatified in 1514. His liturgical feast is on June 30th.

Reflection
Raymond worked most of his life to help spread the gospel. The indifference from some Christian leaders and the opposition in North Africa have not turned him away from his goal. Three hundred years later, Raymond's work began to influence the Americas. When the Spaniards began spreading the gospel in the New World, they set up missionary colleges to help the job. San Junípero Serra belonged to a similar college.