Raymond delle Vigne was born at Capua about the year 1303 and entered the Order of Preachers while he was pursuing his legal studies at Bologna. It was while Regent of studies at Siena that he was for six years spiritual director of Saint Catherine, whose life he afterwards wrote. Encouraged by her, he gave his full support to the cause of Urban VI. He was elected Master General of the Order of Preachers and was assiduous in restoring observance, which had suffered by reason of the deplorable schism of Christendom. In the provinces under hos control, he set home houses apart for regular observance, that the primitive fervour might gradually be revived everywhere. He died peacefully in the Lord, at Nuremberg, in the year 1399, after spending almost twenty years in the work of renewing his Order. In the sixteenth century his body was transferred to the church of St. Dominic at Naples. The long-standing devotion to him was graciously confirmed by Leo XIII. ~ From the Dominican Breviary Vol II, 1967
