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Biography of Raymond LullName: Raymond LullBirth Date: c. 1232 Death Date: 1316 Place of Birth: Palma, Spain Nationality: Spanish Gender: Male Occupations: theologian, poet, missionary Raymond Lull A Spanish theologian, poet, and missionary to the Arabs, Raymond Lull (ca. 1232-1316) was one of the foremost apologists for the Christian faith in his time.Raymond Lull was born at Palma in Majorca. Through family connections and his own ability he began a career as a courtier, first at the court of King James I of Aragon and then at the court of King James II of Majorca. Lull's love of poetry seems to date from this period, when he came under the influence of the troubadour tradition. In 1263 he experienced a religious conversion. He left his wife (whom he had married in 1256), and began the study of Arabic and philosophy with the intention of helping to convert Moslems to Christianity and fighting Averroistic tendencies in Western philosophy.Lull's study of philosophy and his religious experience culminated in a vision which he had on Mt. Randa in 1272. In that vision …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…he presented a petition calling for the prohibition of Averroistic teaching, the beginning of another crusade, a fusion of the military orders, and the creation of a college for the study of Oriental languages. In 1314 he returned to his missionary activity in North Africa, and while preaching in Tunisia he was stoned by a crowd at Bougie and later died aboard a ship that had rescued him. His mutilated body returned to Majorca on that same ship. Further Reading The best general study of the life and works of Lull is E. Allison Peers, Ramon Lull: A Biography (1929). Peers is also author of a shorter, popular biography, Fool of Love: The Life of Ramon Lull (1946). Some aspects of the literary side of Lull's career were the subject of a study by Miriam T. Olabarrieta, The Influence of Ramon Lull on the Style of the Early Spanish Mystics and Santa Teresa (1963). |