RAIMONDO da CAPUA, blessed. — Born in Capua around 1330, into a noble family descended from Pier delle Vigne; he died in Nuremberg in September 1399. He studied in Bologna, where he entered the Dominican Order, and was a lecturer there and in Rome from 1358 to 1362.
In 1363 he then went to Montepulciano as spiritual director of the Convent of S. Agnese. In 1367 he was made prior of the Minerva Convent in Rome, from where he subsequently went to Tuscany for other assignments entrusted to him by the General Chapter, foremost among them the spiritual direction of the young mantellata Caterina da Siena (1374), whom he guided with the utmost prudence and devotion, more as a disciple than as a teacher. Collaborating with the Saint in bringing the Pope back from Avignon to Rome, he accompanied her to the French Court of Gregorio XI (1376) and then to Rome, where, delighted to be once again at her side, he was again entrusted with the priorate of the Minerva (1378); during this tenure Urban VI sent him as his legate to Carlo V of France.
Faithful to the Sienese virgin even after her death, he defended, together with her, Pope Prignano even during the Western Schism (1378–1417). After one year as provincial in Lombardy, in 1380 R. da C. was elected Master General of the Dominican Order; ten years later he began to reform it according to the needs he had discerned during his visits to the various convents of Italy, Germany, and Hungary, appointing Corrado di Prussia as his vicar for Germany and Giovanni Dominici di Venezia for Italy. He died in Nuremberg while visiting that convent. Of fundamental importance for Caterinian history is the Legenda that he composed about her in 1393 and that was first published in Florence in 1477 (Italian version, Siena 1934). Leo XIII confirmed his cult on 15 May 1899, with a feast on 5 October.
The following works of his have been published: De reformatione religiosa, Rome 1581; Opuscola et litterae, ibid. 1895; Registrum litterarum, ibid. 1937.