Saints celebrated on the 10th of June
BLESSED JOHN DOMINICI, ARCHBISHOP OF RAGUSA
Born in Florence of poor parents, Blessed John (Joannes, Johannes Dominici) was raised as a Christian and expected to earn his living by manual labour. However, in 1374, at the age of 18, he was accepted into the Order of Preachers. At this stage, John was yet unable to read or write, but after he had commenced the novitiate in 1378, his amazing progress in all the theological sciences was striking.
Once he had been ordained a priest, John began to preach with great zeal and success and also wrote commentaries on some books of the Bible. In due course he became prior of the monastery in Florence. In this capacity, he built another one in that city for men and a nunnery in Venice. Although he was offered the post of General of the Order more than once, he kept declining this promotion.
During the schism following the death of Gregory XI, Blessed John did support none of the antipopes Benedict XIII, Alexander V and John XXIII. Instead, he sided with Pope Gregory XII, who made him Archbishop of Ragusa and conferred on him the dignity of Cardinal with the title of Saint Sixtus.
After a long period of confusion, during which our John gave Pope Gregory XII many a good piece of advice, he was sent by him to the Emperor Sigismund to achieve unification in the church. Along with Charles Malatesta of Rimini our prudent Dominican and cardinal was also dispatched to the Council of Constance by Gregory XII in 1414 to announce his resignation, and as the antipopes Benedict XIII and John XXIII abdicated as well, the sad schism ended. Peace was fully restored in the Church through the election of Pope Martin V, in which our Blessed John played a major part.
Afterwards John, who also enjoyed the favour of the Emperor Sigismund to a special degree, had to undertake a mission to Bohemia on behalf of Pope Martin V in order to counter the widespread heresy of the Hussites. When continued his trip from there to Hungary, he was attacked by a fever in Ofen (Buda) and died on June 10 (some writers state March 9 or 19) 1419 (others claim he passed in 1418 or 1420).
We know exactly what John looked like; the Bollandists* on p. 395 of their work feature an illustration based on a picture that his famous student, Johannes Angelicus (Fra Angelico da Fiesole), had painted at the monastery at Fiesole which had been founded by our Blessed John. He is depicted wearing a Dominican habit with a cardinal's hat and holding a book in his left hand. The piece of art refers to our Blessed as Dominicus de Florentia; in the Elenchus* he is called Joannes Dominicus, while the Bollandists* call him Joannes Dominici (John of Dominic) because his father was called Dominic.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858, pp. 306-07)
*A hagiography source used by the authors
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed John may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org
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