DOMENICO, SANTO

DOMENIC, Saint. – Founder of the Order of Preachers and of the Dominican Sisters; b. at Caleruega (Spain) c. 1170.

I. YOUTH AND STUDIES

A scion of the ancient line of the Guzmáns, he was born to Felix and Joan of Aza, who died at Caleruega and was buried at Peñafiel; her cult as a blessed was confirmed by Leo XII on 1 October 1824. Of his two elder brothers, Anthony, the first, became a priest and founded a hospice for the poor, while the other, Mannes, entered the Dominican Order in 1215 and his cult as a blessed was confirmed by Gregory XVI on 2 June 1834.

He received the name Dominic from St Dominic of Silos, to whose tomb his mother had gone on a devout pilgrimage while pregnant. Accounts speak of celestial omens preceding his birth: his mother dreamed that she carried in her womb a little dog with a burning torch in its mouth that set the whole world aflame; and Blessed Jordan of Saxony recounts a star that appeared on the child’s forehead at the moment of baptism. At seven he was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncle, archpriest of Gumiel de Izán; then at Palencia he pursued philosophy and theology. During a time of famine, to succour the starving he sold his books and all his belongings, thus setting an example for the other theologians and masters.

II. THE REGULAR CANON

After ordination to the priesthood, Dominic joined the canons of his diocese of Osma, recently reformed into a community of regular canons by Bishop Martin Bazán, and became one of their most zealous members. Despite his youth he was elected sub-prior of the chapter.

As a regular canon, Dominic, besides observing the common life, devoted himself to the care of souls. Diego de Acevedo, prior of the chapter and elected bishop of Osma in 1201, chose the sub-prior Dominic as his travelling companion. Thus, for example, in 1204, when the bishop went to the Marches on a mission entrusted to him by King Alfonso to seek a bride for his son Ferdinand, and probably, according to Scheeben, when the same bishop went to Rome to obtain from the Pope approval for his intention to go on mission leaving the see, Dominic accompanied him. When they arrived in Toulouse in 1206, they found that their host, like most of the people in that region, was a heretic; Dominic discussed with him, succeeded in convincing him of his error, and brought him back to the faith.

III. PREACHER AMONG HERETICS

At Rome Innocent III would not accept Diego’s resignation from the see and ordered him to return to his diocese. At Montpellier they met Abbot Arnold of Cîteaux, together with the monks Peter of Castelnau and Ralph of Fontfroide, papal legates charged with combating heresy in southern France, but discouraged by their lack of success. Diego disapproved of the method followed by the legates and, to make the preaching of the true faith more effective, proposed that they abandon all outward display and prelatial pomp, imitating in all things the apostolic manner. He added example to precept, sending back to Osma all his attendants and keeping Dominic with him; together with Peter of Castelnau and Ralph, in the summer of 1206, as simple and poor preachers they held disputations at Servian, Béziers, Carcassonne and Montréal. Soon abandoned by Peter of Castelnau, Diego continued to preach with Dominic and Ralph, planning also a foundation at Prouille. Meeting twelve Cistercian abbots who accompanied Abbot Arnold, Diego and Dominic instructed them on how to conduct themselves in the mission. But the impending Albigensian War prevented peaceful conversion. Meanwhile Diego wished to return to his diocese to settle some affairs and to procure the money needed for the new house at Prouille; at the end of 1207 he left France hoping to return with the Pope’s definitive approval to organize a group of able preachers against heresy, but he died on 30 December 1207. Ralph had preceded him to the grave and Peter of Castelnau was murdered on 14 January 1208. These losses did not discourage Dominic, who redoubled his zeal precisely during the crusade against the heretics (1209–13).

He gave every support to the mission station at Prouille and strengthened it with fixed revenues partly obtained from his benefactor Count Simon of Montfort, leader of the army. At Prouille there had gathered a congregation of “converted” women whom Dominic undertook to direct. The nuns added to the obligations of the regular life the instruction of young girls in the faith; Prouille thus took on the aspect of a “double” monastery. Dominic never tired of seeking revenues and protectors for II. In a period of difficult years and without notable outward success, he also had “care” of the dioceses of Toulouse, Carcassonne and Béziers; indeed between 1213–14 he was vicar general of Carcassonne. Twice he declined offers of episcopal dignity.

IV. DIOCESAN PREACHER

After 14 September 1213 and the capture of Toulouse, he made that city the first centre of the preaching work he sustained and promoted with such zeal (1214–15), favoured by Bishop Fulk. From April 1215 he began to form in the apostolic spirit the companions who joined him and established the first convent of the Preachers. Bishop Fulk appointed Dominic and his companions diocesan preachers and assigned

and those of Paris and Bologna also encountered great difficulties. With letters of commendation, on 26 April 1218 Dominic, passing through Bologna, went to Spain. In July 1219 he went to Paris where he received into the Order Henry the elder of Cologne; then, with Brother William of Montserrat, he returned to the papal curia, then at Viterbo. During the journey he fell ill. At Viterbo, in Rome and then again at Viterbo, from February to April 1220, he transacted several matters concerning Paris and the revision of the constitutions. Probably in that year he met at the Roman curia Francis of Assisi and Raymond of Peñafort. Honorius III entrusted him with the reform of certain nuns in Rome, and at the beginning of December 1219 the same Pope gave Dominic the church and buildings of S. Sisto to house the nuns to be reformed; there the first disciples of the Saint dwelt provisionally until they obtained the church of S. Sabina.

At Bologna, in the same year 1220, he held the general chapter he had convoked, in which he restored the concept of poverty as he had understood it in the foundation at Toulouse in 1215, and abolished the title of abbot for superiors. The habit was reduced to a simpler form. New foundations were proposed. In the period between this chapter and that of the following year 1221, Dominic, together with Brother Ventura of Verona, travelled through Lombardy, ever attending to the ministry of the divine word.

In 1221 he was in Rome to complete the reform of the nuns of S. Sisto; for Pentecost (30 May) he took part in the second general chapter at Bologna.

There he fell ill and, growing worse, was carried to a confrere’s cell since he had none of his own. He refused a bed, preferring a pallet. That he might breathe purer air, at the beginning of August he was taken from S. Niccolò to the sanctuary of S. Maria del Monte, where, having his friars gathered around him, he exhorted them for the last time and gave them his spiritual testament. After receiving the last sacraments,

After convoking the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Bishop Folco brought D. Radunati and his companions to Rome in 1216. With them he chose the Rule of St Augustine, and consequently the Friars Preachers became part of the family of Regular Canons. D. and his companions were entrusted with the church of S. Romano, free from parochial obligations and rights. In August 1216 a humble dwelling was accepted near that church and the convent was formally erected, while the relations of the Preachers with the diocese remained unchanged.

V. Founder of the Friars Preachers

Upon the election of Honorius III, D. immediately went to him to promote the cause of his Order, and on 22 December 1216 the Pope, with the bull *Religiosam vitam eligentibus*, approved the canonical Order established at S. Romano of Toulouse without, however, mentioning its apostolic purpose, which was instead expressed in the bull *Gratiarum omnium* of 21 January 1217 addressed to “the preachers in the Toulousain regions.”

Taking leave of Cardinal Ugolino, who had become his special protector, D. left Rome in February 1217 to return to Toulouse, where his brethren reported to him on the unsettled political situation in the south. Uncertain about public affairs in Toulouse, D. set about spreading the Order to various parts of Christendom. On 15 August 1217, therefore, he disposed of his friars: he sent four to Spain, seven to Paris for the cura animarum and to make contact with the university milieu, left two in Toulouse and assigned two to Prouille. With a companion he returned to Rome to settle various points of the Order’s constitutions with the Curia. First he sought to obtain general confirmation for his work already spread across Europe, which he obtained on 11 February 1218 in a bull in which the name of the Friars of the Order of Preachers appears for the first time.

In February 1218 he sent his first friars to Bologna, and on the 30th of the following month he procured for the monastery of Prouille a “privilege” identical to that previously granted to the convent of Toulouse.

Among many successes D. also knew bitterness: two friars sent to Spain returned to him discouraged.

Domenico, saint — St D. in the habit of the Order, beside St Peter Martyr. Detail of the fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto (1365). Florence, Cappellone degli Spagnoli.

The friars brought D. back to the city, where on Friday, 6 August 1221, he peacefully passed away, promising his friars that he would be more useful to them after death than in life.

Cardinal Legate Ugolino performed the burial office in the presence of many prelates gathered there. His remains were interred behind the high altar, where they remained for several years almost forgotten. In 1233 a solemn translation took place, and several miracles occurred. After the apostolic process on the virtues and miracles, Gregory IX, on 3 July 1234 at Rieti, canonized the father of the Preachers, documenting this act in the bull *Fons sapientiae*. On 5 June 1267 the body of the holy founder was entombed in the artistic ark, still preserved today in S. Domenico.

St D. distinguished himself not only by rare lucidity of mind but also by great organizational capacity, which in a few years led him to give life to an institute and a movement that had immense weight in the internal and external affairs of the Church. The witnesses of the canonization process and the biographers, beginning with Bl. Jordan, affirm his fervour in preaching in churches, in communities and during travel, and in sending preachers among the faithful and the infidels. Zeal for souls is the dominant note of the person and work of St D. Dante weaves a sublime eulogy of him (Par., XII, 31-111).

VI. Iconography

The image of the Saint, often depicted with a beard and in the habit of the Friars Preachers, is characterized by a star on the forehead, sometimes an open book, and a lily. He is often accompanied by a dog carrying a burning torch in its mouth. The dog and the star are to be connected with the prodigious visions of his mother and nurse.

The earliest representations of the Saint date from the 13th century; examples may be cited in his tomb in the Bolognese church dedicated to him, a work of Fra Guglielmo and Nicola Pisano (1265-67), in the musical instruments of the basilica of S. Marco in Venice, and finally in a panel now in S. Domenico Maggiore, Naples. Andrea da Firenze depicted him in the frescoes of the Cappellone degli Spagnoli in S. Maria Novella, Florence, and the Blessed Angelico in those of the chapter hall of the convent of S. Marco. His image is extremely frequent also in Renaissance sculpture, and a vivid polychrome terracotta representation was given by Niccolò dell’Arca in the church of S. Domenico, Bologna. Often depicted together with the principal saints of the Dominican Order, he also appears at the foot of the Virgin’s throne in images of the Madonna of the Rosary, among which the famous one by Sassoferrato in S. Sabina, Rome, or in the act of witnessing the mystical marriage of St Catherine. V. tavv. CVIII-CIX.