Saint Dominic

Tomorrow is the feast of Saint Dominic de Guzmán. He was born near Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, just north of the Camino, in 1170. Legend has it that before his birth, his barren mother made a pilgrimage to Silos, and dreamt that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a flaming torch in its mouth – and it “seemed to set the whole earth on fire.”

When Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in 1215, they were quickly nicknamed Dominicans, after their founder. And of course, Domini canis is a Latin play on words meaning “dogs of the Lord.”

And what do the Dominicans do? As their proper name indicates, they preach. Historically, they wandered in pairs like the early Christian disciples, preaching in the villages to any who would hear them.

The early Dominicans were particularly effective against the Albigensian heretics in southern France, which they fought primarily with the weapon of the rosary. Legend has it that Dominic received the prayer of the rosary in a vision from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since that time, they’ve preached in other ways. Saint Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest logician and philosopher of the Christian Age, was a Dominican friar.

And, as I’ve mentioned before, their rites of the sacred liturgy are singular and transformative.

Not a bad legacy at all!

May Saint Dominic come to the help of your Church
by his merits and teaching, O Lord,
and may he, who was an outstanding preacher of your truth,
be a devoted intercessor on our behalf.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.