RAYMOND OF CAPUA, BL.

Dominican master general, reformer, hagiographer; b. Capua, Italy, c. 1330; d. Nuremberg, Germany, Oct. 5,1399. Born of the royal Delle Vigne family, Raymond studied at Bologna, and was especially gifted in Scripture and patrology. He became a Dominican c. 1347, and served as lector from 1358 to 1362 in various Dominican

priories. In 1363 he was assigned as spiritual director to the monastery of Montepulciano. In 1367 he was elected prior of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. Later, when regent of studies at Siena, Raymond met catherine of siena and was appointed her spiritual director in 1374. Together, the two helped victims of the plague, tried to begin a new crusade, and attempted to reconcile Florence and the Tuscan League with the pope. Raymond collaborated with Catherine in effecting the return of gregory xi to Rome, ending the avignon papacy.

When the western schism began in 1378, urban vi sent Raymond, once again prior of the Minerva, as papal legate to France to seek the adherence of King Charles V to Urban. The mission failed when Raymond was refused admittance to France. He was elected master general of the dominicans in 1380, and a decade later inaugurated the Dominican reform movement, which sought to restore primitive observance. Raymond is the author of official and personal letters, of biographies of Catherine [Eng. tr. G. Laub (London 1960)] and agnes of montepulciano, and of a treatise on the Magnificat. He died while on a visitation to Germany. He is buried at St. Dominic's, Naples. Leo XIII confirmed his cult on May 15, 1899.

Feast: Oct. 5.

Bibliography: raymond of capua, Opuscula et litterae, ed. h. m. cormier (2d ed. Rome 1899). g. gieraths, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 8:974. a. w. van ree, "R. de Capoue: Éléments biographiques," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 33 (1963) 159–241.

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