GIORDANO OF SAXONY, Blessed. - Dominican master general, b. at Burgberg near Dassel (Westphalia) around 1185, d. on 13 February 1237 off the coast of Syria.
As a young man, G. went to Paris, where in 1218 he was magister artium. Being a deacon and bachelor in theology, on 12 February 1220 he entered the Dominicans, and as a delegate of the Paris convent he took part in the first General Chapter in May 1220 at Bologna. He taught at Paris. Appointed provincial of Lombardy in 1221, at the General Chapter of Paris, on 23 May 1222, he was elected successor of St. Dominic. Alternating the General Chapters between Bologna and Paris and combining with his travels the visitation of the provinces and propaganda activity for his Order in the centers of learning, G. made notable journeys through Italy, Germany, France and England. He had contact with Gregory IX and the papal Curia, with Frederick II, with Queen Blanche, with prelates and scholars everywhere. Returning to Europe after a visit to the Holy Land, he was shipwrecked off the Syrian coast and was buried in the Dominican church of Acre. The ecclesiastical cult paid to G. through the centuries was confirmed by Leo XII in 1827.
Endowed with a lively intelligence and a noble will, with a rich and generous heart, with a fascinating eloquence, nating eloquence, with a rare skill in dealing with men and affairs, G. happily prepared the inheritance of St. Dominic for the great tasks that the Friars Preachers were soon to carry out, increasing the houses from 30 to 300 and the members from about 300 to 4000. The Vitae Fratrum of Gerard of Frachet of 1259-60 devote, after the book on St. Dominic, an entire book to the "holy and memorable father of ours, brother Jordan," with a wealth of personal and spiritual recollections.
He knew the noble Diana d'Andalo, whom, as master general, he helped in the founding of the monastery of St. Agnes at Bologna. G.'s letters to the blessed Diana are important testimonies for religious and cultural history.
As general, G. strengthened the constitutional principles, presiding over the General Chapters and two generalissimos (Paris 1228 and 1236) and publishing the Constitutiones primae Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum quae erant tempore magistri Jordani (ed. H. Ch. Scheeben [*Quellen a. Forschungen zur Gesch. des Dominikanerordens*, 38] Cologne 1939). He promoted conventual studies and saw two fathers rise to university chairs at Paris (1230 and 1231), gave impetus to the priestly ministry in preaching, in the administration of the Sacraments and in burials. From 1231 he had to accept the appointments of his friars as inquisitors in France, Germany, Lombardy, Tuscany, in the Kingdom of Sicily and in Spain.
G. was the first Dominican scholastic writer (In Priscianum minorem: Postilla super Apocalypsum), historian (Libellus de principiis Ordinis Praedicatorum, ed. H. Ch. Scheeben [*Mon. Ord. Praed. hist., 16], Rome 1935, pp. 25-88), homiletic (cf. Archiv. Fratr. Praed., 10 [1940], pp. 5-19) and spiritual (Epistulae, ed. A. Walz, in Archiv. Fratr. Praed., 20 [1950], p. 1 ff. Cf. Quénil-Echard, I, pp. 93-100; H. Ch. Scheeben, Der lit. Nachlass Jordans v. Sachsen, in Hist. Jahrb.*, 52 [1932], pp. 56-71).
Bibliography3 works
1903, pp. 137-253; Vitae Fratrum (Mon. Ord. Praed. hist., 1), Rome 1896, pp. 99-149; Il libro d'oro domenicano, anonymous 15th-century vernacular translation, ed. I. Taurisano, Rome 1925, pp. 143-246; M. Aron, Un animateur de la jeunesse au XIIIe siècle, vie et voyages du b. Jourdain de Saxe, Paris-Bruges 1930; H. Ch. Schechen, Jordan d. Sachse, Vechta 1937; id., Beiträge zur Gesch. Jordans e. Sachsen (with bibl.), ibid. 1938; A. Walz, Compendium hist. Ord. Praed., 2nd ed., Rome 1948, pp. 28-33, 203, 240, 245, 259; id., Intorno alle lettere del b. G. di Sassonia, in Angelicum, 26 (1949), pp. 143-61, 218-32.