Feastday: August 8
Patron: of Astronomers; astronomy; Dominican Republic; falsely accused people; Santo Domingo Pueblo, Valletta, Birgu (Malta), Managua
Birth: 1170
Death: 1221 Printable Catholic Saints PDFs
Author and Publisher – Catholic Online
In the year 1170, Saint Dominic was born in Caleruega, Spain. His parents were nobility in Spain and were related to the reigning family. Felix Guzman, his father, was the royal warden of the village. Bl. Joan of Aza, his mother, was a saint in her own right.
His mother, according to tradition, made a visit to a Silos abbey. There were many signs, according to legend, of the great child she would bear. Joan had a dream of a dog bursting from her womb with a torch in its mouth during the trip, according to one of the most famous stories. The creature “seemed to light the world on fire.” Dominic was given to him by his parents as a play on the phrase Domini canis, which means “Lord’s dog” in Latin. Another, maybe more plausible, theory is that he was called after St. Dominic de Silos, a Spanish monk who lived a century before his.
Dominic received his education in Palencia, where he majored on theology and the arts. He studied theology for six years and the arts for four. His lecturers unanimously praised him as a model student. A famine struck Spain in 1191, leaving many people destitute and homeless. Dominic sold everything he owned, including his furniture and clothing, and used the proceeds to help the underprivileged. “Would you have me learn from these dead skins when people are dying of hunger?” he asked when he sold his manuscripts, which were essential for study.
Twice, Dominic attempted to sell himself into slavery to the Moors to obtain the freedom of others. In 1194, Dominic joined a Benedictine order, the Canons Regular in Osma. In 1203 he joined his bishop, Diego de Acebo on a trip to Denmark. His mission was to help find a bride for Crown Prince Ferdinand. Although an agreement was made, the princess died before she could depart for Spain. Her untimely death left the pair free to travel where they wished. They opted to travel to Rome, where they arrived in late 1204. The reason for this trip was that Bishop Diego de Acebo wanted to resign his office to pursue a new mission, paraphrased from( Saint. Dominic Catholic Online Saints & Angels)
Second Life
The Dominicans’ foundation
Toulouse’s Saint Dominic’s House
Dominic settled in a mansion given to him by Peter Seila, a wealthy Toulouse citizen, in 1215 with six companions.
Dominic recognised the need for a new sort of organisation to meet the spiritual demands of the era’s burgeoning cities, one that would combine dedication and systematic instruction with greater organisational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. He and his friends were confined to monastic regulations of prayer and penance, and Bishop Foulques gave them written permission to preach across Toulouse’s dominion.
Dominic and Foulques also travelled to Rome in 1215, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, to win the approval of Pope Innocent III. Dominic returned to Rome a year later, and the new pope, Honorius III, ultimately gave him official permission to organise the Ordo Praedicatorum in December 1216 and January 1217. (“Order of Preachers”).
Dominic first encountered William of Montferrat in the winter of 1216–1217 at the residence of Ugolino de’ Conti, who joined Dominic as a friar in the Order of Preachers and remained a close friend.
(Source: Paraphrased from Saint Dominic Wikipedia-read more there)
Sources
First life: Catholic online: Worlds Catholic Encyclopedia. 2021. St. Dominic. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=178. [Accessed 8 August 2021].
Second Life: Wikipedia. 2021. Saint Dominic. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dominic. [Accessed 8 August 2021].