High Middle Ages (13th century)
Feast: August 31
A friar who traded himself as hostage for Christian captives — and had his lips padlocked shut to stop him from preaching.
His surname tells his origin story: ‘Nonnatus’ means ‘not born,’ because his mother died in labor and he was delivered by what we would now call a cesarean section. Raymond grew up in Catalonia, joined the Mercedarians — an order founded specifically to ransom Christians held captive in North Africa — and crossed the Mediterranean to negotiate the release of prisoners. When the ransom money ran out, he offered himself as a hostage in their place. While in captivity, he kept preaching Christianity to anyone who would listen. His captors, unable to stop him, reportedly drilled a hole through each of his lips and padlocked them shut with an iron lock. He wore the padlock for months. Eventually, the Mercedarians raised enough money to buy his freedom, and he returned to Spain barely alive. Pope Gregory IX named him cardinal, but Raymond died on his way to Rome in 1240, at about thirty-six. Because of his birth story, he became the patron saint of childbirth, midwives, and newborns — one of the Catholic Church’s more unusual patronage connections.