Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 30 2007

Ramon Llull (1232 – June 29, 1315) (sometimes Raymond Lully, Raymond Lull,  in Latin Raimundus or Raymundus Lullus, or in Spanish Raimundo Lulio) was a Majorcan writer and philosopher born into a wealthy family in Palma, Majorca, part of Spain. He wrote the first major work of Catalan language literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show him to have anticipated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is sometimes considered a pioneer of computation theory.

Llull was well educated, and became the tutor of James II of Aragon. In 1265 he had a religious epiphany, and became a tertiary Franciscan. His first major work was Art Abreujada d 'Atrobar Veritat (The Art of Finding Truth). He wrote treatises on alchemy and botany, Ars Magna, and Llibre de meravelles. He wrote the romantic novel Blanquerna, the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and perhaps the first European novel.

Around 1275, Llull designed a method of combining religious and philosophical attributes selected from a number of lists. It was intended as a debating tool for winning Muslims to the Christian faith through logic and reason. Through his detailed analytical efforts, Llull built an in-depth theological reference by which a reader could enter in an argument or question about the Christian faith. The reader would then turn to the appropriate index and page to find the correct answer. Llull also invented numerous 'machines' for the purpose.

Llull was vocally opposed by the Grand Inquisitor of Aragon, Nicolau Aymerich. As a result, Pope Gregory XI banned some of his writings.

Llull traveled through Europe to interest popes, kings and princes in establishing special colleges to prepare future missionaries to convert the 'infidels' of Tunis to Christianity. He travelled to Tunis and North Africa for several times.

Llull finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. At the age of 79, in 1314, Raymond traveled again to North Africa and an angry crowd of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie or Béjaïa in present-day northern Algeria. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca where he died at home in Palma the next year.

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