Today is the Feast Day of Dominic de Guzmán, better known as the founder of the Dominican Order of priests and brothers. Dominic was born in Spain on this day in August, 1170, and died, almost to the day, 51 years later. His life proves the axiom that it is not how long we live, but how well we live our lives.
Dominic grew up in a well-to-do family in Spain. His mother, Joan, who was beautified by Pope Leo XII in 1829, and his father, Felix, were able to send Dominic away to study at the age of 14. After devoting 6 years to the study of the arts and 4 years to theology, he was ordained a priest at the age of 24. During his seminary years, he assisted people suffering from a famine in Spain by selling his manuscripts, furniture, and clothes.
His intellect and intense spirituality was recognized by his bishop, as he was asked to accompany the bishop to Denmark on an errand to help secure a bride for the King of Spain. As they travelled through the south of France, they encountered a heretical group called the Cathers. The Cathers believed in two gods - one who was the god of the spiritual realm and another, whom they called Satan, who was the god of the material world. What made the Cathers difficult to sway from their heretical beliefs was that the Cathers preached poverty, chastity, and modesty. They believed that people had to remove themselves from the material world in order to encounter their true selves in the spiritual world. The Cistercian monks in the area tried to engage them in debate, but they were not nearly as self-disciplined as those whom they were trying to convert.
Having succeeded in their errand for the King of Spain, Dominic’s bishop was asked to settle in southern France to help the Cistercian monks convert the Cathers. Dominic remained as his assistant and stayed on even after the bishop died. It was during this time, in the year 1208, that Dominic is reported to have had a vision of the Blessed Mother who gave him a rosary. Devotion to the rosary spread quickly and even hardened heretics were converted.
In 1214, Dominic established himself in a house in Toulouse, in southern France, with 6 followers. They received papal approval to form the Order of Preachers in 1216. With Dominic’s charismatic presence, they immediately began to attract followers. Dominic, according to his biographer, is said to have refrained from eating meat, was a strict observer of all fasts and periods of silence, to frequently travel barefoot, and to request the worst accommodations and the poorest of clothes. Also, he “never allowed himself the luxury of a bed.”
Such an austere lifestyle probably contributed to his early death. On one of his trips visiting his brother monks, he reached the convent of St. Nicholas in Bologna, Italy, exhausted and sick with a fever. He asked his brothers to lay him on some empty sacks on the ground. In the brief time he had remaining, he exhorted his followers to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make a treasure out of their poverty. St. Dominic died at noon on the 6th of August, 1221.
St. Dominic de Guzmán, pray for us.
Blessings,
Fr. Kevin MacDonald, C.Ss.R.
POWERED BY BLUBRRY
