Memorial of St. Dominic (1170-1221)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans. There is a legend that St. Dominic’s mother, while she was pregnant with Dominic, had a dream about a dog with a burning torch that leaped from her womb that would set the world on fire, and her dream would come true. St. Dominic would be the Lord’s dog who would set the world on fire by his preaching.[1] Consequently, in iconography he is often depicted with a dog and holding a book.

Born in old Castile, Spain in 1170, he was given the name Domingo Felix de Guzman; he was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle, studied the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma, where there was an attempt to revive the apostolic common life described in the Acts of the Apostles. He had originally joined a Benedictine order, the Canon’s regular in Osma. He became the prior.

On a journey through France with his bishop, he came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc. The Albigensians (Cathari, “the pure”) held to two principles: one good, one evil, in the world. Only the spiritual is good, and all matter is evil; consequently, they denied the Incarnation and sacraments. On the same principle, they abstained from procreation and took a minimum of food and drink; even suicide was praised by means of self-inflicted starvation! The inner circle of the leadership led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism not shared by ordinary followers.

St. Dominic recognized the need for the Church to combat this heresy and was commissioned by the Pope to be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the preaching was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the ascetical heroes of the Albigensians. Understandably, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best inns and had servants. St. Dominic, therefore, with three Cistercians, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal, embracing that evangelical counsel of poverty. He continued this work for 10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders.

He founded a convent in (Prui) Prouille in 1206. This became the first Dominican house. According to legend St. Dominic received the rosary at the Abbey in (Prui) Prouille, this apparently took place in 1214 during an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Marian Rosary became extremely popular after this event. In any case, St. Dominic promoted the Rosary in more or less its current form.

He became very popular because of his mercy and faithfulness, and other religious leaders petitioned to make him a bishop, but St. Dominic refused the honor. In 1215, he was given permission to found a new religious order, the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to promote morality and combat heresy. In 1218, Pope Honorarius III elevated St. Dominic to the Master of the Sacred palace which is a position occupied by Dominican preachers to this day. The pope assigned St. Dominic to the task of restoring the discipline of religious orders of women and bringing them together. The pope rewarded St. Dominic with a new Church, the basilica of Santa Sabina, which remains the headquarters of the Dominicans to this day in Rome.

Following his successes, St. Dominic began a series of travels that would continue for the rest of his life. In 1221, St. Dominic became ill with a fever. After several weeks of illness, He made his last confession and a will and died at the age of 51. In 1223, his body was placed in a humble sarcophagus at San Nicolo, and after his canonization in 1234, his body was moved to a shrine in 1267 at the same place that would become the basilica of San Domenico, in Bologna.

The ideal of St. Dominic and that of his Order, was to link organically a life with God, study and prayer in all forms, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God. His ideal: contemplata tradere: “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God."

Legend has it that St. Dominic saw a vision of the sinful world threatened by God’s anger but saved by the intercession of Mary, who pointed out to her Son two figures: One was St. Dominic himself, the other a stranger. In church the next day he saw a ragged beggar enter . . . the man in the vision. He went up to him, embraced him and said, “You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power can withstand us.” The beggar was St. Francis of Assisi. The meeting of the two founders is commemorated twice a year, when on their respective feast days, Dominicans and Franciscans celebrate Mass in each other’s churches and afterward sit at the same table “to eat the bread which for seven centuries has never been wanting” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints).

Patron Saint of: Patron saint of Astronomers, the Dominican Republic, and the innocent that are falsely accused of crimes.

Let us ask the intercession of this great Saint: St. Dominic, pray for us!

[1] There is a kind of interesting word play. Dominicanus in Latin can be broken up into two words: Domini and Canis which means: “Dog of the Lord.”