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ST DOMINIC DE GUZMAN - 8 AUGUST


ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 8th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST DOMINIC DE GUZMAN, FOUNDER OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER

“HE NEVER ALLOWED HIMSELF THE LUXURY OF A BED”

One of the most influential figures in Christian history in the second millennium, Saint Dominic invigorated the Church during one of those periodic times when man’s imperfections had led it down the wrong roads and so inspired heresy.

Born in 1170 in Calaruega, Castile, he studied at the University of Palencia and was (it is thought since the details are sketchy) ordained there.

HE JOINED A MONASTERY KNOWN FOR ITS STRICT ADHERENCE TO THE RULE OF ST BENEDICT

Joining a monastery known for its strict adherence to the rule of St Benedict, in 1203 he accompanied his local bishop to Languedoc, which was then overrun by the Cathar heresy.

Although following the murder of a papal legate, the Cathars were defeated by Simon de Montfort’s Albigensian crusade and Dominic preached against the heresy, there is no suggestion he had any involvement in any of the brutality that took place at the time. (At the famous massacre at Beziers 20,000 people, Cathars and Catholics, were slaughtered by the northerners, whose leader is supposed to have responded to the point that they were about to kill lots of non-heretics by saying: ‘Kill them all, God will know his own.’)

By all accounts, Dominic did not have much success with the heretics, but did set about reforming the Cistercians and founded an institute for women deep in Albigensian territory.

THE ORDER OF PREACHERS

In 1214 De Montfort (father of the English political leader in the Baron’s War) gave him a castle at Casseneuil. Dominic, along with six followers, founded an order devoted to converting the Cathars, and though canonically approved, failed to win approval at the Lateran Council of 1215. It was only a year later that Pope Honorious III allowed him to set up the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans.

THE PATRON SAINT OF ASTRONOMY

From there he travelled all over Spain, France and Italy attracting new members and building houses, and gaining many converts. Part of the attraction was Dominic’s appeal to learning and the mind, and he is today the patron saint of astronomy. But perhaps the one everyday thing he most changed for Catholics was the use of the rosary, which he and his order helped to spread.

HE LIVED AN AUSTERE LIFE

Influenced by the Benedictine vows of his youth, Dominic lived an austere life, abstaining from meat and observing periods of fasting and silence. He always, according to one chronicler, ‘selected the worst accommodations and the meanest clothes’ and ‘never allowed himself the luxury of a bed’. He would also walk barefoot, ‘however sharp the stones or thorns, he trudged on his way.’ Before Christmas 1218 Dominic arrived at Bologna, where he established a convent and he settled in a nearby church, where he died in 1221, ‘exhausted with the austerities and labours of his career’.

HE WAS CANONISED IN 1234

In the last moments of his earthly life he asked his followers to ‘have charity, to guard their humility and to make their treasure out of poverty’. He was canonised in 1234 and his remains, buried in a simple coffin, were moved to a shrine in 1267.

(This article, entitled “Saint of the Week” was published in “The Catholic Herald”, paper edition, issue August 2, 2013. - 📷 Translation of St Dominic)

➡️ More information about Saint Dominic

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