He invited the Moslem intellectuals to a debate. He said he had studied both religions and was willing to discuss them with them. If they could convince him of the superiority of Islam, he said, he was willing to convert. Many took up the challenge, and spent the first part of the debate listing the advantages of their religion. Llull responded by pointing out some weaknesses of Islam: for example, a lack of harmony between God’s attributes, such as love and greatness. While Muslims would state that God possesses an attribute of love, this love pales in comparison with the love of God who became man and died for sinners. In Christ, love and greatness have their full and most harmonious expression. 

Eugene Stock, 19^th-century editorial secretary of the Church Missionary Society, called him “the first and perhaps the greatest missionary to the Mohammedans,” adding that “there is no more heroic figure in the history of Christendom.”[1]

If the second sentence might be contested, the first one is correct, at least in the centuries before the last. Samuel Zwemer, known as “the Apostle to Islam,” wrote Llull’s first complete biography, praising him for his “self-sacrificial love.”[2]

Llull’s Early Life

Llull was born around 1235 at Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea off of Spain. Those islands were then part of the province of Catalonia, a region with an ancient people who spoke a distinct language (hence the Catalan spelling of his name). They also hosted a mixed population of Christians and Muslims, as about half of Spain was still under Muslim rule.

Born in an affluent family, Llull married young and earned a position in the court of King James II of Aragon, where he lived a profligate life. An able wordsmith, he wrote on warfare and horsemanship, as well as works of poetry – the first known works of poetry in Catalan. In fact, he became the most popular poet of his age in Spain. One of his poems, “Lo Desconort” (Despair), show his deep unsatisfaction with his life of pleasures.

Convicted by a sermon at a Franciscan church in Palma, he made a definite break with his dissolute life when a vision of a disapproving Christ stopped him from writing a love poem to a woman who had rejected him. After some time of penance, he understood that Christ had forgiven him and decided to devote his whole life to him.

Ahead of His Times

He retired to a Franciscan monastery in Mont de Roda, Spain, where he stayed for nine years, until he felt called to preach the gospel to the Muslims. That was the year 1275. At least seven major crusades had been already fought, mostly unsuccessfully. But while the Muslims had seen the Christians’ zeal to reconquer the lands they considered holy, had they really heard the gospel?

There are some instances of Christians bringing the gospel to Muslim rulers (most famously, John of Damascus in the seventh century, Patriarch Timothy I in the eighth and Francis of Assisi during the fifth crusade), but those were the exceptions rather than the rule. Llull was convinced of the need for a sustained mission to the Muslims.

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