Saint Raymond of Fitero

A monk who became a medieval knight.

Saint Raymond of Fitero

Raymond was a 12th-century Spanish abbot who, upon hearing of a castle that had been abandoned on the dangerous Moorish-Christian frontier, volunteered to occupy it with his brothers and take up arms in its defense as “soldiers of the Cross.” These monks-turned-medieval-knights vowed poverty, chastity, occasional silence, and to sleep every night in their armor.