Saint Dominic

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For other saints named Dominic, see the disambiguation page Dominic.

Saint Dominic, Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán (1170 – August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans, a Catholic religious order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and the Dominican Republic.

1 Life
2 Inquisition
3 References
4 External links

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Life

Dominic (in Spanish, Domingo) was born in Caleruega, half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain. Later historical conjecture assigned him to the local noble family de Guzmán. He was named after the patron saint of the Benedictine Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, a few miles north of Caleruega.

A legend stated that before his birth, his mother dreamed she saw her son under the figure of a black-and-white dog, with a torch in its mouth. This legend seems to use the medieval pun on the name of the Dominicans, Domini canes, "dogs of the Lord".

Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia, afterwards a university, where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology. In 1191, when Spain was desolated by a terrible famine, Dominic was just finishing his theological studies. He gave away his money and sold his clothes, his furniture and even his precious manuscripts, that he might relieve distress. When his companions expressed astonishment that he should sell his books, Dominic replied: "Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" This utterance belongs to the few of Dominic's sayings that have passed to posterity. In 1194, around twenty-five years old, Dominic became a canon regular, in the diocese of Osma, under the rule of Saint Augustine.

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In 1203 he accompanied his bishop, Diego, on a diplomatic mission for Alfonso VIII of Castile, king of Castile, in order to secure a bride in Denmark for the crown prince of Spain. The mission made its way to Denmark via the south of France.

When they crossed the Pyrenees, Dominic and Diego encountered the Cathars. They found themselves in an atmosphere of heresy. The country was filled with preachers of strange doctrines, who had become alienated from the Church and had little respect for Dominic, his bishop, or their Roman pontiff. The shocking experiences of this journey inspired in Dominic a desire to aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also deeply impressed by an important and significant observation. Many of these heretical preachers were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be possessed by a desire for knowledge and for righteousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only preachers of a high order, capable of advancing reasonable argument, could overthrow the Albigensian heresy.

Travelling again to Denmark in 1205 and finding that the intended bride had died, Diego and Dominic returned by way of Rome and Citeaux. Dominic then stayed a number of years in the south of France working among the Albigensians, while Diego, at the pope's insistence, returned to his diocese. In 1206, with the help of bishop Foulques of Toulouse, Dominic set up a first monastic community at Prouille near Carcassonne, intended at least partly as a refuge for women who had previously lived in Cathar religious houses. In 1207 he took part in the last large scale public debate between Cathars and Catholics, at Pamiers.

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In 1208 Dominic encountered the papal legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in their attempt to crush the growing sect. To them he administered his famous rebuke: "It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth."

A small group of priests formed around Dominic, but soon left him since the challenge and rigours of a simple lifestyle together with demanding preaching discouraged them. Finally Dominic gathered a number of men who remained faithful to the vision of active witness to the Albigensians as well as a way of preaching which combined intellectual rigour with a popular and approachable style.

In 1215, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in a house given by Pierre Seila, a rich resident of Toulouse. He subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and penance; and meanwhile bishop Foulques gave them written authority to preach throughout the territory of Toulouse. Thus the scheme of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite shape in Dominic's mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world, which represented himself and his six friends.

The final result of his deliberations was the establishment of his order. In the same year, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic and Foulques went to Rome to secure the approval of the pope, Innocent III. Dominic returned to Rome a year later, and was finally granted written authority in January 1217 by the new pope, Honorius III for an order to be named The Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum, or O.P., popularly known as the Dominican Order).

Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled extensively to maintain contact with his growing brotherhood of monks. It was in the winter of 1216-17, at the house of Ugolino de' Conti, that he first met William of Montferrat, afterwards a close friend.

When arriving in Bologna in January 1218, he saw immediately that this university city was most convenient as his center of activity. Soon a convent was established at the Mascarella church by the Blessed Reginald of Orléans. Soon afterwards they had to move to the church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards. St. Dominic settled in this church and held in this church the first two General Chapters of the order. Saint Dominic died in this church on 6 August 1221 and was moved into a simple sarcophagus in 1233. This church was later expanded and grew into the Basilica of Saint-Dominic, consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251. In 1267 Saint Dominic's remains were moved to the exquisite shrine, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell' Arca and the young Michelangelo. At the back of this shrine, the head of St. Dominic is enshrined in a huge, golden reliquary, a masterpiece of the goldsmith Jacopo Roseto da Bologna (1383)

He was made Master of the Sacred Palace, a title given to the pope's personal theologian. It has ever since been occupied by members of the Dominican Order.

Throughout his life Dominic is said to have zealously practiced rigorous self-denial. He wore a hair shirt, and an iron chain around his loins, which he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstained from meat and observed stated fasts and periods of silence. He selected the worst accommodations and the meanest clothes, and never allowed himself the luxury of a bed. When traveling, he beguiled the journey with spiritual instruction and prayers. As soon as he passed the limits of towns and villages, he took off his shoes, and, however sharp the stones or thorns, he trudged on his way barefooted. Rain and other discomforts elicited from his lips nothing but praises to God.

Death came at the age of fifty-one and found him exhausted with the austerities and labors of his eventful career. He had reached the convent of St. Nicholas, at Bologna, Italy, weary and sick with a fever. He refused the repose of a bed and bade the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upon the ground. The brief time that remained to him was spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty. Lying in ashes upon the floor he passed away at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221.

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Inquisition

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What part Dominic personally had in the proceedings of the Inquisition is disputed. His admirers strive to rescue his memory from the charge that he was "a cruel and bloody man." It is argued that while the pope and temporal princes carried on the sanguinary war against the heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading with them in a spirit of true Christian love. He was a minister of mercy, not an avenging angel, sword in hand. It has to be conceded that the constant tradition of the Dominican Order that Dominic was the first Inquisitor, whether he bore the title or not, rests upon good authority. The 14th century Dominican Inquisitor Bernard Gui was also the most influential chronicler of Dominican history: he gave to many stories their definitive form. It seems likely he did not object to a vision in which Dominic figured as an exemplary inquisitor.

What was the nature of the office of inquisitor as held by the saint? As far as Dominic was concerned, it is argued by his friends that the office "was limited to the reconciliation of heretics and had nothing to do with their punishment." It is also claimed that while Dominic did impose penances, in some cases public flagellation, no evidence can be produced showing that he ever delivered one heretic to the flames. Those who were burned at the stake were condemned by secular courts, and on the ground that they were not only heretics but enemies of the public peace and perpetrators of enormous crimes.

But while it may not be proved that Dominic himself passed the sentence of death or applied the torch to the logs with his own hand, he is by no means absolved from all complicity in those frightful slaughters, or from all responsibility for the subsequent establishment of the Holy Inquisition. The principles governing the Inquisition were practically those upon which Dominic proceeded; the germs of the later atrocities are to be found in his aims and methods. By what a narrow margin does Dominic escape the charge of cruelty when it is boasted "that he resolutely insisted on no sentence being carried out until all means had been tried by which the conversion of a prisoner could be effected." Another statement also contains an inkling of a significant fact, namely, that secular judges and princes were constantly under the influence of the monks and other ecclesiastical persons, who incited them to wage war, and to massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other crusades against heresy. No word from Dominic can be produced indicating that he remonstrated with the pope, or that he tried to stop the crusade. In general, very few sayings of Dominic have been preserved. In a few instances he seems to have interceded with the crazed soldiery for the lives of women and children. But he did not oppose the bloody crusade itself. He was constantly either with the army or following in its wake. He often sat on the bench at the trial of dissenters. He remained the life-long friend of Simon de Montfort, the cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed the marriage of his sons and baptized his daughter. Special courts for trying heretics were established, previous to the more complete organization of the Inquisition, and in these he held a commission.

The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a permanent tribunal by Pope Gregory IX, in 1233, twelve years after the death of Dominic. Gregory canonized Dominic on July 13, 1234.

In a series of articles appearing since 1998 in the Dominican historical journal Analecta Fratrum Praedicatorum, Simon Tugwell, O.P., shows that many older views of Dominic and early Dominican history can no longer be supported. For instance, the whereabouts of Dominic between 1206 and 1210 are not at all clear.

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