DOMENICO DI SORA, SANTO

**DOMENICO of Sora, Saint.** — Benedictine, born in Foligno in the second half of the 11th century, died in Sora on 22 January 1031. A monk at S. Silvestro in Foligno, desiring solitude and greater detachment from his relatives, he withdrew to the Sabine region and began to alternate eremitic life with cenobitic life.

In the solitude of a mountain near Scandriglia (986), urged by the many disciples who had gathered around him, he founded the monastery of S. Salvatore. To escape the excessive popularity, he was forced to move from place to place, but he was always followed by new disciples, or even by local lords who begged him to restore monastic observance in their lands. In this way, alongside hermitages, various monasteries arose in the places where the Saint stayed: besides in the Sabine region, in Abruzzo (S. Pietro in Lago, S. Pietro di Avellana), in Lazio (S. Bartolomeo di Trisulti), and nearby, a monastery of nuns: S. Angelo in the territory of Segni. Finally, the foundation most closely associated with his name was that of Sora, made possible by the munificence of Count Pietro Rainerio, whom D. had converted. Of this monastery D. was abbot for the rest of his life, while he entrusted the others he had founded to the governance of his most trusted disciples. It seems, however, that he did not entirely abandon his foundations. Though not directly aiming at the reform of the monastic Order, as did other saints of his time, D. carried out in this field, through his foundations and the example of his life, truly fruitful work, and to him, no less than to the promoters of the Cluniac reform, is owed the monastic renewal in the aforementioned provinces.

D. extended his zeal beyond the cloisters as well, preaching to the people and combating, sometimes with exceptional severity, the vices of the time; he especially inculcated the holiness of marriage. His thaumaturgic virtue and prophetic gift were other reasons for his popularity. Even today he is greatly venerated among the peoples of southern Lazio, Campania, and Abruzzo. His body rests in the church of the monastery he founded in Sora; notable relics are also preserved in Foligno. His feast is celebrated on 22 January, and in Sora also in summer, when numerous pilgrims from neighboring regions flock there.

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