Saint Dominic Biography
Dominic de Guzmán, also known as Saint Dominic, OP ( 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), was a Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. His full name is Dominic of Santo Domingo.
Astronomers and natural scientists venerate him as their patron saint. Dominic of Osma, Dominic of Caleruega, and Domingo Félix de Guzmán are some of his alternate names.
Saint Dominic Wiki
Real Name: Dominic de Guzmán
Birth and early life
In Old Castile, Spain, Dominic was born in Caleruega, which is midway between Aranda de Duero and Osma.He was given the saint Dominic of Silos as his name. A few kilometres to the north of Caleruega is Santo Domingo de Silos, a Benedictine abbey.
In the earliest narrative source, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominic’s parents are not named. The story is told that before his birth his barren mother made a pilgrimage to the Abbey at Silos, and dreamt that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a flaming torch in its mouth, and seemed to set the earth on fire.
This story is likely to have emerged when his order became known, after his name, as the Dominican order, Dominicanus in Latin, and a play on words interpreted as Domini canis: “Dog of the Lord.” Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and a maternal uncle who was an archbishop.
The failure to name his parents is not unusual, since Jordan wrote a history of the Order’s early years, rather than a biography of Dominic. A later source of the 13th century gives their names as Juana and Felix.
Nearly a century after Dominic’s birth, a local author asserted that Dominic’s father was “vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo” (“an honored and wealthy man in his village”).
Dominic’s mother was a member of the Aça or Aza family, according to Pero Tafur’s travelogue, which was published in the early 1440s and describes a journey to Dominic’s tomb in Italy.Pope Leo XII declared Joan of Aza, Dominic’s mother, to be a saint in 1829.
Education and early career
Dominic was relocated to the Premonstratensian monastery of Santa Mara de La Vid at the age of fourteen before continuing his education in Palencia’s schools.He spent four years studying religion and six years studying the arts at Palencia. He eventually joined Santa Mara de La Vid as well.
In 1191, when Spain was desolated by famine, young Dominic gave away his money and sold his clothes, furniture, and even precious manuscripts to feed the hungry. Dominic reportedly told his astonished fellow students, “Would you have me study off these dead skins when men are dying of hunger?”
At the age of 24, Dominic was ordained as a priest and subsequently joined the canonry of the Cathedral of Osma. In 1198, Don Martin de Bazan, the Bishop of Osma, having reformed the chapter, made Dominic the subprior of the chapter.[11]
Diego de Acebo succeeded Bazan as Bishop of Osma in 1201. In 1203 or 1204 he accompanied Diego de Acebo on a diplomatic mission for Alfonso VIII, King of Castile, to secure a bride in Denmark for crown prince Ferdinand.
The envoys traveled to Denmark via Aragon and the south of France. The marriage negotiations ended successfully, but the princess died before leaving for Castile.
They encountered Cistercian monks on their way back who were preaching against the Cathars, a Christian religious cult with gnostic and dualistic ideas that the Catholic Church considered heretical, and who had been dispatched by Pope Innocent III.
Dominic and Diego de Acebo explained the failure of the Cistercians by comparing their pomp and excess to the asceticism of the Cathars. They made the decision to live a more austere lifestyle and launched an effort to convert the Cathars in the south of France.
Prouille
Near the close of 1206, Acebo and his group relocated to Prouille. The Bishop Foulques of Toulouse gave them permission to use the church.
The residence was intended to act as both the organization’s first permanent base of operations and a haven for women who had previously lived in Cathar religious buildings.
Because the buildings at Prouille were not yet livable, the founding sisters of Prouille spent many months living at Fanjeaux. They received the St. Augustine’s Rule from Dominic.
Catholic-Cathar debates were held at Verfeil, Pamiers and Montréal. Ordered by the Pope to return to his diocese, Diego de Acebo died at Osma in December 1207, leaving Dominic alone in his mission.
Dominic, according to Dominican legend, saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in a vision in the church at Prouille in 1208 during which she gave him a rosary.As a result, she became known as Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Dominican preachers are credited for spreading the Rosary. The Dominican Order has placed the Rosary at its core for many years.
In his famous quote, Pope Pius XI said, “The Rosary of Mary is the principle and foundation on which the very Order of Saint Dominic rests for making perfect the life of its members and obtaining the salvation of others.”
Foundation of the Dominicans
With six companions, Dominic moved into a home provided by wealthy Toulousen Peter Seila in 1215. In order to meet the spiritual demands of the era’s expanding cities, Dominic recognized the need for a new kind of organization—one that would combine commitment and systematic instruction with greater organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy.
Bishop Foulques granted him and his companions written permission to preach across Toulouse’s realm once they submitted to the monastic precepts of prayer and penance.
In 1215, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic established himself with six disciples in a home granted by Peter SAlso in 1215, Dominic and Foulques traveled to Rome to obtain Pope Innocent III’s consent.
After Dominic returned to Rome a year later, Honorius III, the new pope, eventually gave him official permission in December 1216 to found the Ordo Praedicatorum (the “Order of Preachers”).
William of Montferrat, who joined Dominic as a monk in the Order of Preachers and became a close companion, and Dominic first met in the winter of 1216–1217 at the home of Ugolino de’ Conti.eila, a wealthy Toulouse resident.
In order to meet the spiritual demands of the era’s expanding cities, Dominic recognized the need for a new kind of organization—one that would combine commitment and systematic instruction with greater organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy.
Bishop Foulques granted him and his companions written permission to preach across Toulouse’s realm once they submitted to the monastic precepts of prayer and penance.
Later life
In her old age, Cecilia Cesarini, who Dominic welcomed into his new order, characterized Dominic as “…slim and of middle height. He had a charming, rather fair face.
He had gorgeous eyes, a goatee, and reddish hair. His voice had a nice resonance, and his hands were long and elegant. He wore a complete tonsure with a few grey hairs mixed throughout, but he never went bald.
Although he traveled extensively to maintain contact with his growing brotherhood of friars, Dominic made his headquarters in Rome.
In 1219, Pope Honorius III invited Dominic and his companions to take up residence at the ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina, which they did by early 1220.
Before that time the friars had only a temporary residence in Rome at the convent of San Sisto Vecchio, which Honorius III had given to Dominic circa 1218, intending it to become a convent for a reformation of nuns at Rome under Dominic’s guidance.
The official foundation of the Dominican convent at Santa Sabina with its studium conventuale, the first Dominican studium in Rome, occurred with the legal transfer of property from Pope Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on 5 June 1222, though the brethren had taken up residence there already in 1220.
The studium at Santa Sabina was the forerunner of the studium generale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The latter would be transformed in the 16th century into the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomæ), and then in the 20th century into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum sited at the convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus.
Upon his arrival in Bologna on December 21, 1218, Dominic.Reginald of Orleans built a convent at the Mascarella church. They were forced to relocate to San Nicol of the Vineyards church shortly after that.
Dominic made this church his home and hosted the order’s first two General Chapters there.Guiraud (1913), pages 126 and 140
According to Guiraud, Dominic abstained from meat, “observed stated fasts and periods of silence”, “selected the worst accommodations and the meanest clothes”, and “never allowed himself the luxury of a bed”. “When traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual instruction and prayers”. Guiraud also states that Dominic frequently traveled barefoot and that “rain and other discomforts elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God”.
Guiraud claimed that Dominic passed away at the age of 51, “exhausted with the austerities and labors of his career.”He arrived “weary and sick with a fever” in the convent of St. Nicholas in Bologna, Italy.
Dominic “made the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upon the ground,” according to Guiraud. Dominic “spent the brief time that was left to him exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty.
“On August 6 at noon, he passed away.In 1233, his corpse was placed to a straightforward tomb.Dominic was declared a saint in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX. The shrine, built by Nicola Pisano and his workshop for the Church of St.
Dominic in Bologna, was where Dominic’s remains were transferred in 1267. He is honored in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 8 August.
Inquisition
Dominic is frequently, though untruely, connected to the Inquisition. No information on Dominic’s role in the Inquisition can be found in historical records from his own day.Dominic passed away in 1221, but in Lombardy and Languedoc, the Inquisition offices were not created until 1231 and 1234, respectively.
Canon 27 of the Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 stressed the duty of princes to repress heresy and condemned “the Brabantians, Aragonese, Basques, Navarrese, and others who practice such cruelty toward Christians that they respect neither churches nor monasteries, spare neither widows nor orphans, neither age nor sex, but after the manner of pagans, destroy and lay waste everything”.
This was followed in 1184 by a decretal of Pope Lucius III, Ad abolendam. This decreed that bishops were to investigate the presence of heresy within their respective dioceses.
Practices and procedures of episcopal inquisitions could vary from one diocese to another, depending on the resources available to individual bishops and their relative interest or disinterest. Convinced that Church teaching contained revealed truth, the first recourse of bishops was that of persuasio.
They attempted to better explain Church doctrine through conversation, argument, and preaching. This strategy frequently showed to be quite effective.
Pope Gregory IX appointed a number of papal inquisitors for the various parts of Europe in 1231, the majority of whom were Dominicans and Franciscans. They were accustomed to traveling as mendicants.
The papal inquisition was comprehensive and systematic, keeping meticulous documents, in contrast to the chaotic episcopal techniques. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, this tribunal or court, which had previously operated in France, Italy, and portions of Germany, had all but disappeared.
The Spanish Inquisition hired Pedro Berruguete to create a portrait of Dominic preside over an auto da fé in the 15th century. In order to auto-justify their actions, the Spanish inquisitors promoted a historical tale.
Protestant polemicists in the 16th and 17th centuries happily created and spread the Dominic the Inquisitor tale as a response to the Spanish tribunals.
This portrayal provided German Protestant opponents of the Catholic Church with evidence against the Dominican Order, whose preaching had established itself as a strong foe in the Reformation-era countries.According to Edward Peters, “In Protestant historiography of the sixteenth century, a kind of anti-cult of St. Dominic grew up.”
Cord of Saint Dominic
A Catholic sacramental called the Cord (belt) of Saint Dominic serves to remind its user of Saint Dominic’s protection.The miraculous Saint Dominic figure at Soriano is connected to the history of the cord.
Its strip’s length complements the painting’s edge.The phrase “O wonderful hope” is written at the start of the prayer. The custom states that one should always wear it if they desire to receive Saint Dominic’s grace.
Couples who are unable to conceive utilize this cord in their prayers to Saint Dominic in hopes of receiving God’s gift of procreation.
Toponymy
One of the rare historical personalities, Saint Dominic, has two independent nations named after him: Dominica and the Dominican Republic. He also has a name for the capital of the latter, Santo Domingo.
Veneration
In Bologna’s Basilica of San Domenico lies a shrine called the Arca di San Domenico that houses Saint Dominic’s remains.
Since the Middle Ages, the annual Pattern of Urlaur celebration has been held on August 4 in Urlaur, Kilmovee, County Mayo, to commemorate Saint Dominic’s feast day.
In Malta’s ancient city of Birgu and its capital city, Valletta, the feast of Saint Dominic is observed with tremendous fervor. Strong ties exist between Malta and the Dominican order, and Pope Pius V, a Dominican friar, helped the Knights of St. John construct Valletta.
- 25 January – commemoration of translation of relics to Church of Saint Roch,
- 15 February – commemoration of the skull translation (1383),
- 24 May – commemoration of first translation (1233),
- 5 June – commemoration of second translation (1267)
- 3 July – commemoration of canonization anniversary (1234)
- 13 July – commemoration of canonization anniversary (1234)
- 3 August – main commemoration (Australia)
- 4 August – commemoration by (Traditional Roman Catholics),
- 5 August – main commemoration (New Zealand)
- 6 August – commemoration of death anniversary,
- 7 August – main commemoration (Diocese of Sosnowiec, 8 August – anniversary of the dedication of cathedral church)
- 8 August – main commemoration,
- 15 September – commemoration of apparition of Saint Dominic in Soriano (traditional date)
- 25 September – commemoration of apparition of Saint Dominic in Soriano (modern date)
- 11 November – commemoration of third translation (1411)[
And this,
- St. Dominic’s Cathedral in Fuzhou: First established by Spanish Dominicans in 1864.
- Mother Marie-Anastasie
- Everton F.C., originally named Saint Domingo’s F.C.
- Religiosam vitam
- Nos attendentes
- Saint Dominic in Soriano, a miraculous painting of 1530
- Saint Dominic, patron saint archive
- San Domenico di Guzman, a 1997 oratorio based on Dominic’s life