St. Dominic, Priest

St. Dominic Guzmán was born in Caleruega, Old Castile, Spain, sometime after 1170. On completing his studies in theology at Palencia, he was appointed (about 1196) a canon of the cathedral chapter at Osma, and in 1201 he was chosen prior of that cathedral community. He accompanied Osma’s bishop, Diego de Azevedo, on two royal embassies to northern Europe, and during that time he became acquainted with the needs of the Church, especially in the Languedoc region of France, where the Church was severely threatened by the Albigensian heresy. To assist the Church in her present grave need, Dominic and several other priests were commissioned by Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) as itinerant preachers to save the French faithful from the heretics. Dominic preached throughout southern France for a period of about eleven years (1206–17). In 1214, he conceived the idea of forming a religious community to continue this important work of preaching, so he and his companions went to Toulouse in 1215, and there they formed what eventually came to be known as the Order of Friars Preachers, more commonly called Dominicans. Dominic only had six more years to live, but during that time he saw his order expand into France and Spain, Italy, Germany, and Poland. The cities of Paris and Bologna, both university centers, became the principal bases for the order’s growth. In 1221, after participating in the order’s second general chapter in Bologna, Dominic became ill and died there on August 6, 1221. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1234. Today’s prayer recalls that during a period of crisis St. Dominic came to the aid of the Church, that is, by his preaching against the heretics and by founding the Order of Friars Preachers.