Raymond of Peñafort
Dominican Master General, archbishop and saint, catholic jurist from Catalonia

Raymond of Peñafort (Catalan: Sant Ramon de Penyafort, IPA: [ˈsan rəˈmon də ˌpɛɲəˈfɔɾ]; c. 1175 – 6 January 1275) was a Dominican friar who was a canon lawyer. He compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canonical laws that remained a major part of Church law until the 1917 Code of Canon Law abrogated it. He was canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1601 and is the patron saint of canon lawyers.
He wrote one of the first manuals for user of the inquisitors, the Directorium inquisitoriale (1242).
Life
Raymond of Penyafort was born in Santa Margarida i els Monjos, a small town near Barcelona, Principality of Catalonia, c. 1175. Descended from a noble family with ties to the royal house of Aragon, he was educated in Barcelona and at the University of Bologna, where he received doctorates in both civil and canon law. From 1195 to 1210, he taught canon law. In 1210, he moved to Bologna, where he remained until 1222, including three years occupying the Chair of canon law at the university. He came to know the newly founded Dominican Order there.
“Raymond of Peñafort” enters the record as dominican Master General, archbishop and saint, catholic jurist from Catalonia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Raymond, Peñafort and Dominican can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Raymond of Peñafort” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Raymond, Peñafort and Dominican provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q318980. VIAF identifies the subject as 8282151778238118130004. The Library of Congress control number is n81074464. 3 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1175, 1275, 1917 and 1601.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Raymond of Peñafort”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Raymond of Peñafort primary sources, Raymond of Peñafort archive and Raymond research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Raymond of Peñafort”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Raymond of Peñafort” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.