Dominic's Day

August 8:  Saint Dominic – Founded the Order of Preachers (O.P.) AKA: the Dominicans – the Black Friars

Born in 1170 in old Castile, Spain, he was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle, studied the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma.

On a journey through France with his bishop, he came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc in southern France. The Albigensians (Cathari, “the pure”) held to two principles—one good, one evil—in the world. All matter is evil—hence they denied the Incarnation and sacraments. On the same principle, they abstained from sex and took a minimum of food and drink. The inner circle led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism not shared by ordinary followers.

Dominic sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy, and was commissioned 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 Albigenses. Understandably, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best inns and had servants. Dominic therefore, with three Cistercians, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for 10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders.

His fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 he founded a religious house at Toulouse, the beginning of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).  Dominic died in 1220 and requested that he be buried under the floor (and the feet of his brothers) of a monastery in Bologna, Italy.   He was later entombed in a chapel of the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.

Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and speakers.

Dominic is from the Latin and means “sacred to the Lord.”

Dominic is often depicted in his white habit with black mantle holding a lily with a dog next to him holding a torch in its mouth.