Saint Dominic

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For other saints named Dominic, see the disambiguation page Dominic.

Saint Dominic
Oldest image of Saint Dominic unknown artist - 14th century Priory of the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy
Founder of the Dominicans
Born	1170 in Calaruega
Died	August 4,1221, Bologna
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church
Canonized	1234
Feast	August 8
Attributes	Chaplet, dog, star
Patronage	astronomers; astronomy; Batanes-Babuyanes, Philippines; Bayombong, Philippines; Dominican Republic; falsely accused people; Santo Domingo Indian Pueblo; scientists
A short hymn or prayer A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil. St. Dominic

Saint Dominic, Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo de Guzmán Garcés (1170 – August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers (OP), a Catholic religious order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and the Dominican Republic.

1 Life
2 Inquisition
3 Notes
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Life

Dominic (in Spanish, Domingo) was born in Caleruega, half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain. He was named after Saint Dominic of Silos, the patron saint of the Benedictine Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, a few miles north of Caleruega.

In the earliest narrative source, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominic's parents are Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza. The story is told that before his birth his mother dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth, and "seemed to set the earth on fire". Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and a maternal uncle who was an archpriest.^[1] The failure to name them is not surprising, since Jordan's work is a history of the early years of the Order rather than a biography of Dominic. A later source, still of the 13th century, gives the names of Dominic's mother and father as Juana and Felix.^[2] Nearly a century after Dominic's birth, a local author asserts that Dominic's father was vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo ("an honoured and wealthy man in his village").^[3] The earliest statement that Dominic's father belonged to the family de Guzmán, and that his mother belonged to the Aça or Aza family, occurs in the travel narrative of Pero Tafur, written in 1439 or soon after.^[4]

Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, afterwards a university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology. In 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, Dominic was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away his money and sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious manuscripts, that he might relieve distress. When his companions expressed astonishment that he should sell his books, Dominic replied: "Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" This utterance belongs to the few of Dominic's sayings that have passed to posterity. In 1194, around twenty-five years old, Dominic became a canon regular, in the diocese of Osma, under the rule of Saint Augustine.

Saint Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization to address the needs of his time, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy

In 1203 or 1204 he accompanied the bishop of Osma, Diego de Acebo, on a diplomatic mission for Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, in order to secure a bride in Denmark for crown prince Ferdinand.^[5] The mission made its way to Denmark via the south of France.

When they crossed the Pyrenees, Dominic and Diego encountered the Cathars. They found themselves in an atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with preachers of strange doctrines, who had become alienated from the Church and had little respect for Dominic, his bishop, or their Roman pontiff. The shocking experiences of this journey inspired in Dominic a desire to aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also deeply impressed by an important and significant observation. Many of these heretical preachers were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be possessed by a desire for knowledge and for righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only preachers of a high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument, could overthrow the Cathar heresy.

Travelling again to Denmark in 1204 or 1205 and finding that the intended bride had died, Diego and Dominic returned by way of Rome and Citeaux. Dominic then stayed a number of years in the south of France working among the Cathars. In late 1206 or early 1207, with the help of bishop Foulques of Toulouse, and thanks to the generosity of Guillaume and Raymonde Claret, Diego and Dominic were able to set up a first monastic community at Prouille near Carcassonne, intended largely as a refuge for women who had previously lived in Cathar religious houses. Soon afterwards Diego, at the pope's insistence, returned to his diocese. Still in 1207, Dominic took part in the last large scale public debate between Cathars and Catholics, at Pamiers.

St. Dominic, from a photograph of the painting preserved in his cell in the convent of Santa Sabina, Rome

In 1208 Dominic encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their attempt to crush the growing sect. To them he administered his famous rebuke: "It is not by the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth."

A small group of priests formed around Dominic, but soon left him since the challenge and rigours of a simple lifestyle together with demanding preaching discouraged them. Finally Dominic gathered a number of men who remained faithful to the vision of active witness to the Albigensians as well as a way of preaching which combined intellectual rigour with a popular and approachable style. By departing from accepted church practies and learning from the Albigensians, Dominic laid the ground for what would become a major tenet of the Dominican order over time - to find truth no matter where it may be.

In 1215, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in a house given by Pierre Seila, a rich resident of Toulouse. He subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and penance; and meanwhile bishop Foulques gave them written authority to preach throughout the territory of Toulouse. Thus the scheme of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite shape in Dominic's mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world, which represented himself and his six friends.

The final result of his deliberations was the establishment of his order. In the same year, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic and Foulques went to Rome to secure the approval of the pope, Innocent III. Dominic returned to Rome a year later, and was finally granted written authority in December 1216 and January 1217 by the new pope, Honorius III for an order to be named The Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum, or O.P., popularly known as the Dominican Order).^[6]

Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled extensively to maintain contact with his growing brotherhood of monks. It was in the winter of 1216-17, at the house of Ugolino de' Conti, that he first met William of Montferrat, afterwards a close friend.

When arriving in Bologna in January 1218, he saw immediately that this university city was most convenient as his center of activity. Soon a convent was established at the Mascarella church by the Blessed Reginald of Orléans. Soon afterwards they had to move to the church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards. St. Dominic settled in this church and held in this church the first two General Chapters of the order. Saint Dominic died in this church on 6 August 1221 and was moved into a simple sarcophagus in 1233. This church was later expanded and grew into the Basilica of Saint-Dominic, consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251. In 1267 Saint Dominic's remains were moved to the exquisite shrine, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell' Arca and the young Michelangelo. At the back of this shrine, the head of St. Dominic is enshrined in a huge, golden reliquary, a masterpiece of the goldsmith Jacopo Roseto da Bologna (1383)

Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced rigorous self-denial. He wore a hairshirt, and an iron chain around his loins, which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstained from meat and observed stated fasts and periods of silence. He 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. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and villages, he took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or thorns, he trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God.

Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with the austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached the convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, Italy, weary and sick with a fever. He refused the repose of a bed and made the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upon the ground. The brief time that remained to him was spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty. He died at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221.

[edit] Inquisition

St Dominic presiding over an auto de fe, Spanish, 1475

What part Dominic personally had in the proceedings of the Inquisition has been disputed for centuries. The historical sources from Dominic's own time period tell us nothing about his involvement in the Inquisition. This is all the more striking when we consider that several early Dominicans, including some of Dominic's first followers, did become inquisitors. In fact, the notion that Dominic had been an inquisitor only began in the 14th century through the writings of a famous Dominican inquisitor, Bernard Gui, who tried to paint his Order's founder as a participant in the Institution, perhaps in part to justify his own activities.

In the 15th century, Dominic would be depicted as presiding at an auto da fé, later offering German Protestant critics of the Catholic Church a handy publicity weapon against the very Order whose theologically informed preaching had proven to be a formidable opponent in the lands of the Reformation. Thus a 14th century invention soon became a part of the great Black Legend.

[edit] Notes

^ Jordan of Saxony, Libellus de principiis 4. The dream has been thought to allude to the medieval pun on the name of the Dominicans, Domini canes, "dogs of the Lord"; it has also been argued that the dream suggested the pun.
^ Pedro Ferrando, Legenda Sancti Dominici 4. Juana is customarily rendered "Jane" in English.
^ Rodrigo de Cerrato, Vita S. Dominici.
^ Pero Tafur, Andanças e viajes (tr. Malcolm Letts, p. 31), describing a pilgrimage to Dominic's burial place. Tafur's book is dedicated to a mamber of the Guzmán family.
^ Jordan of Saxony, Libellus de principiis 14-20; Gérard de Frachet, Chronica prima [MOPH 1.321].
^ See Religiosam vitam; Nos attendentes.

[edit] References

Alfred Wesley Wishart. A Short History of Monks and Monasteries. 1900. Project Gutenberg etext
Guy Bedouelle, 'The Holy Inquisition: Dominic and the Dominicans', an article on the main Dominican website
"St. Dominic" by John B. O'Conner. The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909.
Simon Tugwell, Early Dominicans, New York: Paulist Press, 1982.
M.-H. Vicaire, Saint Dominic and his Times, transl. by Kathleen Pond, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Alt Publishing, 1964.
McGonigle, Thomas and Phyllis Zagano "The Dominican Tradition" (Spirituality in History Series) (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press) 2006.