Saints celebrated on the 29th of June
BLESSED RAYMOND LULLY, PHILOSOPHER
[Ramon Llull (Ramon Lull, Raymond Lully, Raymundus Lullus)], "Doctor Illuminatus", was a philosopher, poet, and theologian, born at Palma in Majorca, between 1232 and 1236; died at Tunis, June 29, 1315.¹
In 1263 Lully experienced a series of visions. He narrates the event in his autobiography Vita coaetanea ("A Contemporary Life"):
Lully, while still a young man and Seneschal to the King of Majorca, was very given to composing worthless songs and poems and to doing other licentious things. One night he was sitting beside his bed, about to compose and write in his vulgar tongue a song to a lady whom he loved with a foolish love; and as he began to write this song, he looked to his right and saw our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, as if suspended in mid-air.
The vision came to Lully five times in all and inspired in him three intentions: to give up his soul for the sake of God's love and honour, to convert the Saracens to Christianity, and write the best book in the world against the errors of the unbelievers².
He became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Francis of Assisi.¹
Lully urged the study of Arabic and other languages in Europe, in order to convert Muslims and other Schismatics. He travelled through Europe to meet popes, kings, and princes, trying to establish special colleges to prepare future missionaries. In 1276 a language school for Franciscan missionaries was founded at Miramar, funded by the King of Majorca.
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| A diagram from Lully's great work Ars Magna, his philosophical system for converting people to Christianity through logical arguments. |
About 1291 Lully went to Tunis, preached to the
Saracens, disputed with them in philosophy, and after another brief sojourn in Paris, returned to the East as a missionary. He travelled to Tunis a second time in about 1304, and wrote numerous letters to the king of Tunis, but little else is known about this part of his life.
Lully returned in 1308, reporting that the conversion of Muslims should be achieved through prayer, not through military force. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.
In 1314, at the age of 82, Lully travelled to Tunis once more, possibly prompted by the correspondence between King James II of Aragon and al-Lihyani, the Hafsid caliph, indicating that the caliph wished to convert to Christianity.
His last work is dated December 1315 in Tunis. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. He probably died sometime between then and March 1316, either in Tunis, on the ship on the return voyage, or in Majorca upon his return. Lully's tomb, created in 1448, is in the Franciscan church in Palma, Majorca.²
Raymond Lully was beatified on September 11, 1847 by Pope Pius IX.²
Sources:
¹ Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
² https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Llull
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Raymond may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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