Today is the Feast of St. Raymond. He is also the patron of pregnant women. If you are acquainted with any expectant parents, a short prayer to St. Raymond may bring comfort and peace to the mothers-to-be.
Raymond is often called “not-born” since his mother died in labor and he was taken from her. He entered the religious order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Mercedarians. The order had a simple, singular purpose: they bought captives out of slavery in North Africa.
Besides the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Mercedarians also assumed a fourth vow. They gave themselves as hostages to the slaveholder if ransom money ran out. In Algiers, Raymond’s money ran out. He kept his vow, and gave himself over so that others could go home.
One cannot help but recall the words of Jesus that “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.” (John 15:13, NRSV). There is a tradition that his captors padlocked Raymond’s lips to stop him from preaching the Gospel. Eventually, he was ransomed back to Rome and made a Cardinal by Gregory IX.
Raymond’s singular charity was redeeming those in slavery. The Gospel truly frees one from the slavery of sin. Raymond’s perfect resignation to God’s will reminds us that, in Christ, we are freed from the bondage of sin.
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.