Order of Preachers

DOMINICAN FRIARS, ORDER OF - Mendicant order founded by St. Dominic (hence: Dominicans) for preaching. Its modern constitutions indicate the means employed to prepare the friars for this mission: 1) public recitation of the Divine Office, 2) regular life, 3) observance of certain ascetical practices, 4) assiduous study of sacred sciences.

SUMMARY:

I. Foundation

II. The Dominican constitution

III. Domestic activity and controversies

IV. Missionary activity

V. Crisis of mendicancy and poverty

VI. Return to common life

VII. Thomism

VIII. The Second Order of Dominicans

IX. The Third Order of Dominicans

X. Dominican confraternities

XI. Modern era

XII. Revival

XIII. Present state

XIV. Dominican architecture.

I. FOUNDATION

The Order arose from an apostolic undertaking (Sacra praedicatio) in Languedoc among the Albigensian heretics, directed in 1206 by Diego, Bishop of Osma (Spain), and, after his death (6 Feb. 1207), by his companion Dominic, subprior of the regular Chapter of Osma. In April 1215, with the approval of the Bishop of Toulouse, Dominic transformed this association of preaching clerics into a permanent religious community and established it near Toulouse, first in a temporary house and then at the church of S. Romano, which had been ceded to him by the bishop. As a rule for the house, the community adopted certain usages of the Premonstratensian canons, greatly modified by Dominic himself to adapt them to the apostolic aims of his congregation. After a journey of St. Dominic to Rome, the community chose as its code of spirituality the Rule of St. Augustine, generally followed by the canons regular. A few months later, the Holy See approved the new institute (22 Dec. 1216) and its purpose (21 Jan. 1217). On 15 Aug. 1217, the spread of the Dominican Order throughout the Church began, with the expanded aim of forming learned clerics dedicated to preaching, especially among city-dwellers, without being bound to a specific parish. Dominic therefore began by founding convents in the two principal university centers: Paris (1217) and Bologna (1218). The extension of this apostolic mission was announced to the whole Church by Honorius III on 11 Feb. 1218. At the death of the founder (6 Aug. 1221), the Order already had several houses in France, Italy, and Spain; it had established itself in Germany, England, Hungary, and was about to enter Poland and Scandinavia.

II. DOMINICAN CONSTITUTION

Outlined by the founder (the first part in 1216, the second in 1220), it assigns to the body of representatives of the entire Order the plenitude of legislative power. This periodic assembly, or General Chapter (annual in the 13th century), declares and completes the fundamental statute. Its decrees become an integral part of the constitution if approved by three consecutive Chapters. The executive power is held by the Master General for the whole Order, by the Provincial Prior for each religious province, and by the Conventual Prior in each convent (a house with at least 12 religious, one of whom is a lector, i.e., a teacher of sacred sciences). The Master General, elected by the General Chapter, does not require any further confirmation to take office. Appointed for life (now for 12 years), he is subject to the control of the General Chapter, which is composed alternately of the Provincial Priors and the definers elected in the respective Provincial Chapters. In
FRATI PREDICATORI - Christ, the Madonna and nineteen Dominican saints and blesseds. Painting by the “Master of Dominican Images” (c. 1345) – Florence, church of S. Maria Novella.

In case of extreme necessity the Master General may summon together the provincials and definers; and such a Chapter has power to alter or supplement the constitutions. In any event a constitutional law must be the fruit of collaboration between superiors and subjects. The Friars Preachers do not take a vow to observe the Rule and constitutions, but to obey their superiors according to the Rule and constitutions. Most of these laws are rather binding directives for the exercise of authority and at the same time limitations on the power of superiors. Those which bear directly on the subjects do not bind under pain of sin, but to a penitential amendment to be imposed by the superior, who may temporarily dispense this or that subject, never the whole community, from the observance of certain laws if study, preaching or the salvation of souls so require. In 1220 the Order renounced every benefice with cure of souls; hence its members assumed the name of friars, abandoning (at the latest by 1240) the title of canons. They retained, however, the recitation of the Divine Office, but breviter et succincte, so as not to hinder study. The constitutions, reorganized under the generalship of Ray-