medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
29. June is also the feast day of:
Ramon Llull (Bl.; d. 1316). The Catalan practical theologian, philosopher, mystic, and missionary Ramon Llull (in English formerly Lully but now usually Lull; in Latin, Lullus or Lullius) was born to settler parents in the city of Majorca a few years after that island's conquest for the Crown of Aragon in 1229/1230. He married, had children, and later experienced a religious conversion that caused him to abandon his family for a life as an hermit-scholar. According to his _Vita coaetanea_ (BHL 7067), dictated late in life to a monk at the charterhouse of Paris and probably re-shaping past events to meet his current purposes, the conversion occurred when he was thirty. For the remainder of his long life he would write voluminously, usually in Catalan with translations into Latin following, on the conduct of Christian life and on a system of thought and presentation (his Art) that would, he hoped, be effective in bringing unbelievers into the church. He learned Arabic and Hebrew and his knowledge of Judaism and of Islam was unusually good for a Christian of his time and place. In 1274 Ramon moved to the kingdom's capital, Montpellier, where his large work _On Contemplation_ was was approved after examination by a Franciscan examiner. Although he had at least three stays in Paris, where he brought his Art into greater accord with contemporary scholastic thought, and although, seeking support for missionary activities in Muslim-ruled lands, he made trips to various European courts and to the maritime powers Genoa and Pisa, most of his scholarly work was done in Montpellier.
In 1276 pope John XXI (the former Peter of Spain, author of the _Summulae logicales_) authorized the establishment on Majorca of a Franciscan monastery at Miramar where future emissaries to Muslim-ruled countries would learn Arabic; the _Vita coaetanea_ gives Ramon the credit for persuading James II of Majorca to fund this enterprise. In 1285 and again in ca. 1305 Ramon himself, who had become a Franciscan tertiary, made missionary visits to Tunis that on the first occasion led to his expulsion and on the second to his withdrawal when his attempts to convert the local ruler were unsuccessful. Two later visits to Bugia (today's Bejaia in Algeria) also ended in failure. Ramon's last writings date from December 1315. The circumstances of his death are not clear; he appears to have died either while on another trip to Tunis or else shortly after that, perhaps on the return voyage to Majorca or perhaps soon after his return. By March 1316 he was buried in Ciutat de (now Palma de) Majorca's Franciscan church. A late report of his being fatally stoned by Muslims during a final missionary expedition to Africa has caused the church of Rome to view him as a martyr. Ramon's cult is said to have been approved papally by Leo X, who authorized a Mass and Office for him. He entered the RM under this day (the day on which he is said to have been stoned) in the revisions of 2004 to the edition of 2001.
A page of expandable views of scenes of Ramon Llull's life as depicted in a fourteenth-century manuscript of Thomas Le Myèsier's _ Breviculum seu Electorium parvum_ (Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Cod. St. Peter perg. 92):
http://www.lullianarts.net/miniatures/index.HTM
Links to digitizations of manuscripts of Ramon Llull's works:
http://orbita.bib.ub.edu/ramon/velec.asp
Best,
John Dillon
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