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Oil Dedicated to St Raymond Nonnatus (Patron for New Born Babies)

St Raymond Nonnatus (Patron for New Born Babies) from A Blessed Call To Love, Ireland.

Raymond Nonnatus is a saint from Catalonia in Spain. His nickname refers to his birth by Caesarean section, his mother having died while giving birth to him.

Raymond is the patron saint of childbirth, midwives, children, pregnant women, and priests defending the confidentiality of confession.

According to the traditions of the Mercedarian Order, he was born in the village of Portell (today part of Sant Ramon), in the Diocese of Urgell. He was taken from the womb of his mother after her death, hence his name. Some traditions describe him as the son of the local count, who is traditionally credited as the one to have performed the surgery which saved his life, others that he was born in a family of shepherds. His well-educated father planned a career for his son at the royal court of the Kingdom of Aragon. When the boy felt drawn to religious life, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms. What known that Raymond spent his childhood tending sheep and would often pray at an ancient country chapel nearby dedicated to St. Nicholas. If he was of aristocratic descent, clearly his father eventually abandoned hopes for his son’s social advancement.

His father later gave him permission to take the habit with the Mercedarians at Barcelona. The order founded to ransom Christian captives from the Moors of North Africa. Raymond trained by the founder of that order himself, St. Peter Nolasco. He ordained a priest in 1222 and later became Master General of the Order.

Raymond died at the Castle of Cardona, sixty miles from Barcelona, either on August 26[4] or on August 31, 1240. According to tradition, the local count, the friars and the town all claimed his body. To resolve this dispute, the body placed on a blind mule, which let loose. Unguided, it went to the nearby country chapel where he had prayed in his youth. It  there that he  buried. Many miracles attributed to him before and after his death.