Feast day: 8 August
Saint Dominic de Guzmán
Sanctus Dominicus
The Castilian canon who answered heresy with learned, poor and joyful preaching, founding the Order of Preachers and spreading the Rosary.
- Born
- c. 1170, Caleruega, Castile (Spain)
- Died
- 6 August 1221, Bologna (Italy)
- Canonization
- Canonized 3 July 1234 by Pope Gregory IX.
- Religious order
- Order of Preachers (Dominicans)
- Country
- Spain and Italy
Biography
Canon of Osma
Dominic studied at Palencia, where he sold his precious books to feed the victims of famine, and became a canon regular of Osma cathedral. Travelling through Languedoc in 1203 with Bishop Diego he encountered the Albigensian movement and concluded that error is answered by preachers who are both learned and genuinely poor.
The Order of Preachers
He gathered converted women at Prouille in 1206 and then a band of preachers at Toulouse. Honorius III confirmed the Order of Preachers in December 1216. Dominic dispersed his first friars to the universities of Paris and Bologna, insisting on study, common life and democratic government by chapter. He died at Bologna in 1221, asking to be buried under the feet of his brethren.
Timeline
- ~c. 1170 — Born at Caleruega
- 1203 — First journey through Languedoc
- 1206 — Founds the monastery of Prouille
- 1216 — Order of Preachers confirmed by Honorius III
- 1221 — Dies at Bologna
- 1234 — Canonized by Gregory IX
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Dog with a torch — A play on Domini canes, 'hounds of the Lord', who set the world alight with truth.
Rosary — The Dominican tradition of his preaching of the Marian psalter.
Star on the forehead — A light seen at his baptism, according to his early biographers.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Study joined to prayer, mercy toward the poor, and constant cheerfulness. He is remembered as speaking only with God or about God.
Importance in the Church
The order he founded gave the Church Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena and the first university theologians of the mendicant movement, and pioneered a preaching apostolate answerable to the whole Church.
Quotes
“A man who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either rule them, or be ruled by them.”
Attributed in early Dominican sources (Libellus of Jordan of Saxony)
Prayers
O Lumen Ecclesiae
O light of the Church, teacher of truth, rose of patience, ivory of chastity, you freely poured forth the waters of wisdom: preacher of grace, unite us with the blessed. Amen.
Latin: O lumen Ecclesiae, doctor veritatis, rosa patientiae, ebur castitatis, aquam sapientiae propinasti gratis: praedicator gratiae, nos iunge beatis. Amen.
Dominican antiphon sung daily after Compline since the thirteenth century.
Places
Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna — His tomb, carved by Nicola Pisano and Michelangelo among others.
Caleruega, Spain — His birthplace, with a Dominican shrine.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)