San Ramon was born in the 13th century in the city of Portell, in the province of Lérida, in Spain. His mother died before he was born, and he was then delivered by caesarian section, cut out of her dead body in a spontaneous emergency operation performed by the Viscount of Cardona with a daggar he carried in his belt. He is thus evoked by women who pray for an easy childbirth. The name “Nonato” means “The Unborn”.

As a youth, he became a shephard in the employ of a group of monks at an old Roman hermitage dedicated to San Nicolás, where the Virgen María was venerated, and he became, himself, a devout servant of la Santa Madre de Jesús.

While still a young man, he joined the Orden de la Merced, which was an order which raised money to go to North Africa and pay the ransom for Christains who were being held there. While on one such mission, he was found, by the Muslim authorities, to be preaching and attempting to gain converts to Christianity. The local ruler warned him that he must stop, or else he would be punished. A zealous preacher, he continued, and was arrested. In order to literally shut him up, his lips were perforated and a padlock was installed, which was later removed when they put him on a ship back to Spain.

For this last reason, he has become a very popular saint in Mexico, where people appeal to him by way of a spell designed to shut up gossips. In this, one acquires and image of the saint, along with a red votive candle. One prays the prayer to him which one finds on the back of his prayer card or his votive candles, and then one asks him to shut up a particular gossip or group of gossips, and then one takes chewing gum and uses it to press a coin over his mouth. One lights the candle and sets it next to the image on ones altar (this is what curanderas do) or else one sets it in some place where it will not be disturbed.

A statue of San Ramon on the altar of a Mexican Curandero