To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

• St. Dominic was born in the year 1170

in Caleruega, Spain. The name Dominic
means “belonging to God”.
• His father was Don Felix de Guzman, a
knight in the service of the King, and
his mother was Blessed Juana de Aza.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

• Dominic had two brothers. Anthony was

a priest and Canon of the Military Order
of St. James, Blessed Mannes joined St.
Dominic in the Order of Preachers. Little
is known of his lone sister, only that she
mothered two sons who later on became
Dominicans as well.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

• Prior to Dominic’s birth, his mother had a

dream. In her dream she saw a spotted dog
with a flaming torch in its mouth, ready to set
the world on fire. This dream prefigured what
St. Dominic was to be a preacher who would
spread the light of truth.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

•It is said that when Dominic was

baptized, his godmother saw
something like a star shining on his
forehead. Again, this symbolized
what Dominic was to be a bearer of
Christ’s light.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

•At the age of seven, Don Felix entrusted

Dominic to the care of his uncle, the
parish priest of Gumiel d’Izan. It was in
his uncle’s custody that Dominic learned
the basics of grammar, Latin, and Sacred
Music.
Even as a child, Dominic
avoided games and
denied himself the
comfort of a bed to sleep
on the floor.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
•When he was fourteen, he entered the
University of Palencia where he undertook
the requisite studies for priesthood. In
Palencia, he learned to live an ascetic
lifestyle, devoting himself to intense
prayer, acts of penance, and study of
theology.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
"I could not bear to prize dead skins when living skins were starving and in
want."

• While Dominic was in Palencia, a severe famine broke

out. This tragic even was a result of the war between the
Christians and the Moslems in Spain. Moved with pity
towards those who were dying of hunger, Dominic sold
his possessions, including the books which his own hands
annotated, just to be able to contribute a little in
alleviating the people from their miserable condition.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
• In the year 1195, at the age of 24, Dominic was ordained
to the priesthood. He was assigned as a Canon Regular
in the Cathedral Chapter of Osma. Canons were priests
directly under the bishop. They took care of the
religious ceremonies in the Cathedral, as well as of the
administration of parishes in the diocese. The Canons of
Osma followed the Augustinian way of life.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
• In the year 1205,King Alfonso IX of Castile sent the
Bishop of Osma, Don Diego, to a diplomatic mission
to the Lord of the Marches. The Bishop took
Dominic with him. At that time, Dominic was the
sub-prior of Osma.
• This journey would change the course of Dominic’s
life. On their stop-over in Toulouse, Southern
France, Dominic had a first-hand experience of the
Albigensian Heresy which was gradually poisoning
the faith of Europe.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
• The Albigensian Heresy or the Cathars was a well organized
religious system. The heretics had their own “pope” and
clerics.
• Basically, this heresy is the belief that there are two “gods” –
one is responsible for the material order which is evil, and the
other for the spiritual order, which is good.
• Everything material is evil. People resented the human body,
food, sex, the sacraments, and everything material.
The sooner a person is liberated from
the body, through severe acts of mortification and even
through induced death, the better.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
• Due to some unexpected circumstances, Dominic’s diplomatic
mission was aborted. Don Diego decided that they would just go
to Rome to have an audience with the Holy Father, Pope Innocent
III, and report on the sad conditions of those who had fallen into
the Albigensian heresy.
• In response to their report, the Pope made Bishop Diego the
unofficial leader of a Papal mission to convert the Albigensians.
The Bishop took Dominic with him. They lived simply, and the
spoke with great conviction. They engaged in ordinary day-to-day
conversations with people, in contrast to the formality of other
missionaries.
While at Toulouse,
Dominic stayed up
all night until he
had persuaded the
innkeeper to
accept the true
faith. 
The Albigensians were
extremely austere, but
Dominic surpassed them all
by his charitable sacrifices.. 
Exhausted from his
vigils, he sometimes
napped on the side of the
road.  It was his practice
to carry his shoes until
he got to town. 
Dominic once told a
pompous bishop, "...
heretics are more
easily won over by
examples of humility
and virtue than by
external display or a
hail of words. 
Should we not rather arm
ourselves with devout prayers
and, carrying before us the
standard of true humility,
proceed in our bare feet
against Goliath?" 
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

The First Dominicans

• In 1206, not knowing how to start converting the
Albigensians, St. Dominic prayed to Our Lady for assign.
Three times he saw light descending on an old church in
Prouille.
• Dominic gathered the women he had converted from the
heresy and brought them to Prouille where they
eventually became a community of nuns. Hence, the first
Dominicans were women.
On the night of July 22,
1206, the feast of Saint
Mary Magdalene, on a hill
of Fanjeaux overlooking
the little town of Prouille
on the plain, Saint
Dominic saw what
appeared to be a globe
of fire descending upon a
shrine of Our Lady. 
From this, he
understood that he
was to establish a
monastery of nuns at
Prouille.  In the
months that followed,
Dominic converted
nine young women. 
Consequently, the first "Dominican"
convent opened on the 27th of December. 
Saint Mary Magdalene, the penitent
Apostle to the Apostles, therefore, would
become the patroness and mother not only
of the converted nuns of Prouille but of the
Order of Preachers about to be born.
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach

• The Prouille Community served as an information

center, a school for children, and a refuge for
women who escaped the hostile world of the
Albigensians.
 THE ORDER OF PREACHERS

• In the year 1215, Dominic, having organized a community of

men, went to Rome to seek for the Pope’s approval of
his religious order.
•  At that time, the Lateran Council had just been concluded, and
it had been decided that no new religious orders shall be
established.
• Pope Innocent III, however, allowed Dominic and his men to
live as a community, but were to follow an already existing
religious rule. In the case of the Dominicans, they adopted the
rule of St. Augustine.
 THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
• In the year 1216, the new pope, Honorius III, gave his
approval to the Order of Friars Preachers and gave
them right to preach anywhere in the world.

• On one occasion in Rome, St. Dominic had a vision of a

beggar who will be his companion in doing great things
for the faith. The next day, he met the beggar and
embraced him. He was St.Francis of Assisi.
While in Rome for the
Council, it is believed
that Saint Dominic
met Saint Francis of
Assisi.  Both of them
would establish a new
kind of religious life,
which is mendicant
and apostolic. 
Today in Saint
Peter's Basilica,
colossal statues of
Saints Francis and
Dominic flank both
sides of the Chair
of Saint Peter.
Once, while praying in the
old Saint Peter's Basilica,
Saint Dominic saw a
vision. 
The Apostle Peter handed
him a staff, and the
Apostle Paul handed him a
book. 
Together, they spoke to him,
saying, "Go and preach,
because you have been
chosen by God for this
work." Immediately, it
seemed to Dominic that he
saw all his children
preaching two by two
throughout the world.
To his brethren, Dominic was
exemplary in mortification,
doctrine and contemplation. 
Three times each night, he
would whip himself to blood,
once for his own salvation, a
second time for sinners, and a
third for departed souls.  Later,
other Dominican saints would
do the same. 
Dominic is a saint
because of his great
charity, not because
of his miracles, yet
the greatness of his
miracles is a sign of
his love.
He died on a Friday, August 6,
1221, about 6 o'clock in the
evening: fittingly the Transfiguration,
a feast regarding prophets and
apostles. 
Saint Dominic had lived 51 years.
His feast day is on August 8
 To Praise, To Bless, To Preach
• Dominic spent the rest of his life traveling,
preaching the light of truth, and organizing new
communities.

• On August 6, 1221, he died in Bologna. On July

13, 1234, he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX
(other sources say August 4)