Raymond of Capua | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Master General of the Order of Preachers | |
| Born | ca. 1330[1] Capua,Kingdom of Naples |
| Died | 5 October 1399 (aged 69) Nuremberg,Holy Roman Empire |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 15 May 1899,Saint Peter's Basilica,Kingdom of Italy byPope Leo XIII |
| Majorshrine | Church of San Domenico Maggiore,Naples,Italy |
| Feast | 5 October |
| Attributes | Dominican habit |
Raymond of Capua, (ca. 1303 – 5 October 1399) was a leading member of theDominican Order and served as itsMaster General from 1380 until his death. First asPrior Provincial ofLombardy and then as Master General of the Order, Raymond undertook the restoration of Dominican religious life. For his success in this endeavor, he is referred to as its "second founder".[2]
Raymond worked also for the return of thepapacy toRome and for a solution to theWestern schism. The importantmystic and author,Catherine of Siena, accepted him as aspiritual director because of his burning passion for the Church and for the revival of religious life. He wasbeatified by the Catholic Church in 1899.
He was born "Raymond della Vigna" about 1330 inCapua (then part of theKingdom of Naples), a member of a prominent family of that city, and was a descendant ofPietro della Vigna (a figure mentioned inDante'sDivine Comedy). In 1350, while a student of law at theUniversity of Bologna, he entered theDominican Order. For the next twenty-five years he worked as a spiritual director or as a teacher in various communities of the Order.
Raymond was first assigned toMontepulciano, where he served as achaplain to a monastery ofnuns of the DominicanSecond Order. He was the first biographer of their venerated formerprioress,Agnes of Montepulciano, who had died about fifty years earlier. He was then stationed in Rome, to serve as theprior of the friars atSanta Maria sopra Minerva. Later he was sent toSiena, where he was assigned by the Master General to be the spiritual director andconfessor to the notedDominican tertiary,Catherine of Siena.
Raymond spent the next six years advising her and hearing her confessions. While there, Raymond gradually learned to trust her holiness and her judgment. This was sealed when he became involved in nursing victims of a plague in 1374. When he contracted the disease himself and lay near death, Catherine came and sat at his bedside until he recovered. Knowing how close he was to death, Raymond credited his recovery to her prayers.
By 1374 Raymond had come to the attention ofPope Gregory XI, then living inAvignon, as a result of his connection to Catherine, and also for his novel ways of confronting issues like theCrusades in theHoly Land, the return of the papacy to Rome, and the general reform of the Church. He was well known for his ability to pass seamlessly from dealing with spiritual and supernatural considerations to the more mundane matters of practical politics. For four years Raymond accompanied Catherine in her journeys, and went to Avignon to act as an intermediary between her and the pope. Catherine had such faith in the commitment of the pope to the cause of a Crusade, that she sent a personal letter to the infamousEnglishpirate,John Hawkwood, asking him to re-direct his efforts to the service of God in this cause.
Pope Gregory would finally return to Rome in 1377, but he died in 1378. The refusal of the Frenchcardinals to accept the election of his successor,Pope Urban VI, led to theGreat Western schism that lasted 39 years, with one pope in Rome and another inAvignon. This schism divided Europe. Raymond, like Catherine, supported the Roman papacy and defended its legitimacy.
In 1379 by command ofPope Urban VI Raymond was examined by Fra. Giacomo Altoviti who promoted him to the grade of Master of Theology.[3][4]
In the year 1380, Catherine died and Raymond was elected Master General of Dominican Order. He then divided his time between Italy and Germany. In the Caterinian spirit of reform, he gave a new spiritual vitality to the Order. Raymond favored the development of a new interpretation of "observance", for which he drew upon theFranciscan example. In this work he gained the designation of being the second founder of the Order of the Preachers.
Raymond was buried first inNuremberg (now Germany), where he died, but his body was later moved toNaples, to the Church ofSan Domenico Maggiore. In 1899Pope Leo XIIIbeatified him on the 500th anniversary of his death.[5]
| Preceded by | Master General of the Dominican Order 1380 – 1399 | Succeeded by |
