St. Raymond of Peñafort
Patron of canon lawyers, lawyers, medical record keepers
Saint Raymond of Peñafort (c. 1175–1275) was a Dominican friar, canonist and confessor to popes and kings. Born near Barcelona, he taught canon law at Bologna before joining the new Order of Preachers. Gregory IX entrusted him with the compilation of the Decretals, which remained the foundation of Western canon law for nearly seven centuries. Elected Master of the Dominicans, he reformed the order's constitutions and labored to convert Jews and Muslims in Spain, founding studia of Hebrew and Arabic and inspiring Thomas Aquinas to write the Summa contra Gentiles. He resigned all offices to spend his last decades in the confessional of Barcelona, where he died over a hundred years old.