RAIMUNDUS PALMERIUS (PALMIERI, PALMARIO), St. — Pilgrim, born c. 1140 at Piacenza, of a noble family; d. 1200 at Barcelona. He entered the Order of Mercy, founded by St Peter Nolasco, and became its first general. He was a zealous preacher and a tireless worker in the redemption of captives. He is venerated as a saint in the Order of Mercy and in the dioceses of Barcelona and Piacenza.
His principal work is the Summa de poenitentia, a vast treatise on the sacrament of penance, which enjoyed great authority and was widely used in the schools and in the confessional. It is divided into four parts: the first treats of the sacrament in general; the second of sins; the third of the various kinds of penance; the fourth of marriage. The work is very practical and useful for correcting and directing every category of penitents. The first three parts seem to have been written at Barcelona between 1222-28 and 1229, certainly not completed before 1227, and published before 1234; the fourth part (on marriage) was compiled about 1235-36 and is a reworking of the Summa de matrimonio of Tancred. He also wrote glosses on the Decretum (cf. St. Kuttner, Repertorium der Kanonistik... I, Vatican City 1937, pp. 20 ff., 100 ff., 438-52). The influence exercised by R. d. P. with his Summa de poenitentia is evident in the numerous editions, in the glosses that were added to it, and in the compilations made from it which bear the title Summulae de summa s. Raymundi or Summulae abbreviatae s. Raymundi. Less important is the Summa pastoralis, a kind of manual for bishops or archdeacons in the visitation of the diocese, edited by L. Delisle (Catalogue des manuscrits, I, Paris 1849, pp. 592-649).