5 October is the feast of Blessed Raymond of Capua (1330-1399). After studies at the University of Bologna he was miraculously called by St Dominic to join the Dominicans, where he combined learning with modesty.

His indifferent health held him back from the rigours of strict observance. In 1374 he was appointed as Lector to the Dominican Convent in Siena where he met St Catherine, whom he learned to call his Mother, and became one of her informal group of Caterinati and St Catherine’s promised, by Our Lady, confessor, and confidant.

He was initially concerned about the source of the saint’s visions, ecstasies and extraordinary mortifications, but his doubts were eventually assuaged and he was present in Pisa when St Catherine received the stigmata. He accompanied her on her journeys. He played an important rôle in procuring the return of the Pope from Avignon and in trying to mitigate, latterly as the legitimate Master General, the 40 year Schism that began in 1378 and which affected the Order as well as the Church, and the ravages of the Black Death.

 He was in Genoa, on the orders of Pope Urban VI, when he learned miraculously that St Catherine had died that day, 29 April 1380. He governed the Order for 19 years and earned the title of “Second Founder” for his work of reform. He was used by various Popes in difficult negotiations and wrote the Life of St Catherine. Exhausted, he died in Nuremberg on 5 October, 1399, whence his remains were removed to Naples. He was beatified 50 years after his death.

Howard Trust September 2026