Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont Pomona Faculty Publications and Research Pomona Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2008 The Life of Raymond "The almeP r" Kenneth Baxter Wolf Pomona College Recommended Citation Wolf, Kenneth B. "The life of Raymond 'the Palmer' " Medieval Texts in Translation, 2008. Web. 22 May 2009. canilup.googlepages.com. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Pomona Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pomona Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. the life of raymond "the palmer" (by Rufino, early thirteenth century) translated by Kenneth Baxter Wolf This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Medieval Texts in Translation Raymond "The Palmer" (Palmario or Palmerio) of Piacenza (d. 1200) is a good example of a medieval pilgrim saint who, after the death of his wife and five children, committed himself to an endless series of pilgrimages to various shrines, including Jerusalem. Raymond ultimately suspended his itinerant life, dedicating himself to the relief of the poor and sick in his native Piacenza. This transformation made him typical of the lay "civic saints" who dominated Italian hagiography from the late twelfth to the late thirteenth centuries. The Life of Raymond “the Palmer,” written in Latin by Rufino, then translated anonymously into Italian, and now newly rendered into Latin, faithfully restored from the Italian manuscript of the archive of the nuns of St. Raymond of Piacenza.[1] The author’s preface and the dedication of the work: To the humble servants of Jesus Christ, the poor[2] of the hospital of our most blessed father Raymond “the Palmer,”[3] I, Rufino, the least of the masters in the Canonry of the Twelve Apostles, greet you.