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On June 30, 1315 missionary, mystic, and philosopher Raymond Lull was stoned to death in Bougie, North Africa.
Raymond Lull was born in Palma on the island of Majorca in 1235. Although he married and had children, he lived a promiscuous life at the royal court. But at age 31, he had a dramatic conversion.
“Men who have led a very adventurous life under the pressure of passions, have often been seen suddenly to change, resort to resignation and penance, and become hermits and monks. To this class belong all genuine accounts of conversion, for instance, that of Raymond Lull, who had long wooed a beautiful woman, was at last admitted to her chamber, and was looking forward to the fulfillment of all his desires, when, opening her dress, she showed him her breast terribly eaten away with cancer. From that moment, as if he had looked into hell, he was converted; leaving the court of the King of Majorca, he went into the wilderness to do penance." (Quoted in, Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, § 68)
Shortly after his conversion he went on pilgrimage to Campostella, and then retired in seclusion to his native island. During that time, Lull developed a burden to reach the unreached Muslims. After his first missionary jouney to the Muslim world in 1308, he traveled throughout Europe spreading the vision of reaching the Islamic world.
“The conquest of the Holy Land should be attempted in no other way than as Christ and the Apostles undertook to accomplish it—by prayers, tears, and the offering up of our own lives. Many are the princes and knights that have gone to the Promised Land with a view to conquer it, but if this mode had been pleasing to the Lord, they would assuredly have wrested it from the Saracens before this. Thus it is manifest to pious monks that Thou art daily waiting for them to do for love to Thee what Thou hast done from love to them."
He developed a three-part strategic plan for reaching the Muslims.
- Obtain a comprehensive knowledge of Arabic and mid-eastern languages.
- Study Islamic literature until they could refute any Muslim argument.
- Go as missionaries to the Muslims.
Lull made three missionary tours to Africa. He devoted his life to the conversion of Muslims and attested his zeal by a martyr’s death.
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