Spanish Colonial Retablo, Portrait of Saint Raymond Nonnatus;
San Ramón Nonato
oil on tin, in a shadowbox frame.

The image here depicts Saint Raymond Nonnatus, born in 13th c. Portello, Aragon (Spain) who became a friar in the Mercedarian Order in Barcelona; he was canonised in 1657. He is known as the patron saint of: women in childbirth, mid-wives, pregnant women, unborn children, etc. His mother died when in labor for his birth--and this is why he called "Nonnatus" (in Latin, meaning: "not born" (i.e. not born in a natural fashion--since he was born by Caesarean section).

He is seen here wearing a white tunic with a red and green mantle. He holds a large monstrance in his right hand and a martyr's palm with three golden crowns on it in his left hand. He also wears tonsure and is featured with a large golden halo above his head. He kneels in supplication atop and around stylised clouds.

In the 13th c. Raymond helped Christian slaves become free from Moorish prisons in Valencia; and later when he tried to liberate other Christian captives in Algiers and Tunis he was captured by Moors who bore holes around his mouth and placed a padlock on his mouth and lips so that he could not speak to the Christians.

This event explains why his mouth is covered in the image here--originally it would have been covered with an image of a painted padlock; this image is also damaged around Raymond's mouth because the owner of the retablo could have often touched this image on the spot of the padlock in order to venerate him--but which also eventually wore away the paint around the area of his mouth. The padlock on one's mouth is also clearly a symbol of other things related to talking: it is sometimes seen in relation to priests who hear confessions and who uphold their confidentiality; it is also sometimes seen in veneration for the end of gossip and false testimony.

An altar is dedicated to him in the Cathedral of Mexico City. Believers place locks around the altar in commemoration of his acts in North Africa--and in order to be heard themselves, as form of prayer request.
6 x 4 1/4 inches