Saint Raymond of Toulouse

His wife having died through a particular guidance of divine Providence, which destined him for a more perfect life, he followed this counsel of the Apostle: 'Are you loosed from a wife? seek not a wife, but remain in continence.' Indeed, from that moment he made a profession of very perfect chastity; and, to prevent its loss, he began to chastise his body with fasts, vigils, and other very rigorous macerations, regarding it as a rebel that had to be tamed, and as an enemy from whom he had to take away the power to fight him and to harm him.

He no longer considered himself the owner of his goods, but only the steward and dispenser, and he distributed them so liberally to the poor that it seemed he had only received them to place them in their hands: the sick, the prisoners, and all sorts of other unfortunate people had a share in his charities, and he did not even exclude the Jews, because he knew how to distinguish in them the quality of men, which is the work of God, and that of infidels and the obstinate, which is the work of the devil and the human spirit.

His mercy, not being able to be satisfied with a few particular alms, led him to undertake great things for the public utility, which he happily brought to execution. The first was the foundation of a college for the maintenance and instruction of thirteen poor clerics, in honor of Our Lord and the twelve Apostles; he had the house built at his own expense, and then gave it good revenues, so that these servants of God, being freed from all earthly cares, would have no other concern than to make themselves capable of glorifying Jesus Christ and procuring the salvation of their neighbor. He was usually found with them; and, although he was not yet in Holy Orders, he did not fail to encourage them greatly, by his examples and by his speeches full of fire, to fulfill all the duties of the ecclesiastical state. The second work, which his charity led him to undertake, was the construction of two bridges over the river Héro, near Toulouse. Previously, one was forced to cross it by boat to enter this great city; and, as great storms often arose there, the boats would sink and many people were lost. This misfortune touched this man of mercy with pity, who took part in all the afflictions of his neighbor; he saw no other remedy than to have bridges built there; and, although the expense was very great for a simple private individual, he nevertheless found, with the help of divine Providence, which never fails to assist those who put their trust in it, more than was needed to satisfy it. The two bridges were therefore built, and it can be said that, by this means, he gave life to as many people as this public convenience saved from shipwreck. Finally, his fervor finding nothing impossible, he formed the design of rebuilding from scratch, and with more magnificence and splendor, the basilica of Saint-Sernin, which was falling into decay. He spent thirteen years on this work, providing the necessary money for such a great u ndertaking, overseeing th basilique de Saint-Sernin Major religious edifice that Raymond had rebuilt. e beautiful layout of the building, and urging the workers to put all their industry into it, because it was not a profane house they were building, but the house of God.

It was not enough to devote his goods to the service of Jesus Christ and to the utility of his neighbor: it was necessary, for his complete satisfaction, that he also make a perfect sacrifice of himself by embracing the religious life. When this church of Saint-Sernin was almost completed, he asked to be admitted among the number of the regular canons who served it. His merit was too great, and his benefactions toward this house too considerable, for him not to be received there. He took the habit, made his novitiate, and pronounced his vows with an uncommon fervor, which inspired admiration in all those who were witnesses to it. When he was professed, he undertook a new enterprise, much more noble and more pleasing to Our Lord than all those he had carried out while in the world; this was to work for the reform of this regular community, which had fallen extremely far from its former splendor and kept almost nothing of the regular observances.

His example contributed greatly to this purpose; for his life was a continual lesson of silence, modesty, mortification, assiduity in prayer, reverence in the chanting of psalms and in the celebration of the divine offices, and detachment from all earthly things; but he contributed even more through his remonstrances, his prayers, and a thousand other pious industries which he used to win the hearts of the other religious, and thus lead them to the fulfillment of the duties of their profession. The good odor of this house, renewed by his care, caused many people to leave the world and renounce the vanities of the century to place themselves under the yoke of Jesus Christ in such a holy school; so that, if he had the honor of being the restorer of the material edifice of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, one can say that he also had the glory of restoring its spiritual edifice, by making this abbey one of the most regulated and flourishing that there was in France.

Finally, when he had lived there for some years in great reputation for holiness, God rewarded his alms, his austerities, and his zeal for the salvation of souls with a happy death that served as a passage to a happier eternity, on July 3 of the year 1073 or 1074. Admirable thing! This excellent religious, who had so well deserved of his brethren, and who was like the second founder of the abbey, nevertheless judged himself unworthy to be buried there. He therefore prayed, with insistence, that he be buried with the poor clerics he had founded, and of whom we have already spoken. It was taking from his house a great treasure and a pledge more precious than all the riches of the world; but one dared not refuse his request. Thus he was laid in a stone tomb that he had had dug near the college of these thirteen clerics. God has since illustrated this sepulcher with a great number of miracles: the possessed have been delivered there, the blind, the crippled, and all sorts of infirm have been healed.

We have drawn this life from the lessons of his office, which ar e in the Breviary of Sainte-Geneviève Bréviaire de Sainte-Geneviève de Paris Liturgical source used for the composition of this life. in Paris. — Cf. General History of the Church of Toulouse, by Abbé Salvan.