RAYMOND DE PENAFORTE°

RAYMOND DE PENAFORTE° (d. 1275), Dominican monk, one of the initiators of anti-Jewish activities in Catalonia during the reign of James I (1213–76). Raymond was born in Peñaforte, Catalonia, and studied law at the University of Bologna, completing his studies in 1216. In 1222 he founded the   Dominican monastery of Barcelona. He was a favorite of Pope gregory IX and, among other duties, he served as the Pope's confessor beginning in 1230. When the heresy of the albigenses spread to northern Catalonia from Provence, Raymond influenced the king of Aragon to establish the Papal inquisition in the district of tarragona . As initiator of missionary activities in his order, he made great efforts to convert Jews to Christianity, founding Hebrew and Arabic schools for this purpose. He was the moving spirit of the anti-Jewish legislation of James I in 1228. He was also among the initiators and most prominent participants of the barcelona disputation of 1263. The accusation before the royal tribunal of Barcelona against Naḥmanides , in 1265, that he had "blasphemed Christianity," was also instigated by Raymond and the Christian anti-Jewish literature written after the disputation of Barcelona was a product of his school. He was canonized in 1601. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Spain, 1 (1961), 152, 156f., 161; F. Valls-Taberner, San Ramón de Penyafort (1953), incl. bibl., 372–80.