Saint of Today: Blessed Raymond Lull
Raymond was born in about the year 1232 in Palma, the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca, in a very wealthy and noble Lull family. He was well educated and became a tutor of King James-II of Aragon. He married Blanca Picany, a relative of King James-II of Majorca in 1257 and they had two children. He then became the administrative head of the Royal Household of King James-II of Majorca.
br /> One day when he was sitting on his bed, he saw Jesus Christ on the cross, suspended in the mid-air on his right side. This kind of vision came to him five times. Due to these visions he got a change of mind and decided to live a religious life. He entered the Third Order of St. Francis and resigned his position in the Royal Household. He then left his family also and lived a life of hermit in solitude at the Mount Randa for about nine years.
He learned Arabic from a Muslim slave in order to preach among the Muslims and to convert them to Christianity. He visited many countries in Europe, met kings and princes and pressed them to establish colleges to teach and prepare future missionaries. In 1285 he went to North Africa, preached Gospel in various places but was expelled from Tunis. He went to North Africa many times but returned with little success and confessed that Muslims can be converted to Christianity only by prayer and not by military force. He then as a last time went to North Africa in 1314 but he was stoned by the Muslims in the city of Bougie. But some merchants took him before he died to Majorca where Raymond died at Palma on June 29, 1315. He wrote more than 300 works in Latin and Arabic about theology, logic, philosophy and also poetry and fiction.
He was beatified by pope Pius-IX in the year 1847
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