SAINT OF THE DAY

THURSDAY, 8 AUGUST, 2024

SAINT DOMINIC GUZMAN

PRIEST AND CONFESSOR

(1170 - 1221)

In Calaruega, Spain, in the year AD 1170, Jane of Aza, a noblewoman, felt her unborn child leap in her womb. She had ardently prayed at the Benedictine Abbey of Silos, asking St. Dominic if he would intercede on her behalf for the blessing of another son even though she did not yet know if it was a boy or a girl. The following night, Jane had a dream in which a large dog jumped out of her belly while holding a lit candle. He lit the world on fire with this torch. She went to the Santo Domingo de Silos monastery and enquired of a monk as to what it signified. He said that the unborn child will grow up to be a renowned preacher, who would set the world ablaze with the fire of his words,"

Soon after, she and her husband had a boy, whom they named Dominic after the 11th-century saint, St. Dominic of Silos, in honor of whom the abbey she had visited was named. After seven years, Jane sent Dominic to study with her brother, the archpriest of Gumiel d'Izan, with immense parental satisfaction. The youngster seemed to be a voracious student who responded favorably to his instruction. Sacred Scripture, particularly the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of Paul, was his favorite subject to study. He was enthralled by the call to make disciples of all countries found in Matthew 28:19 as well as by Paul's unwavering fervor for sharing the Gospel with everyone. He studied the passage from Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats with great interest since it explained how those who served others were truly serving Christ secretly.

As a result, Dominic was motivated to sell even his most priceless books at the University of Palencia in order to help the less fortunate. Dominic even made an attempt to sell himself into slavery to the Moors as a teenager in an effort to free others. After completing his theological studies at Palencia, he was named a canon of the cathedral chapter in Osma and, in 1201, was selected as the community's prior.

Dominic eventually received the blessing to be ordained as a priest and started his career as a regular canon in Osma. Dominic was not first exposed to the Albigensian heresy until 1203, when he traveled with Bishop Diego of Osma on a king's mission in southern France. A ostensibly Christian sect known as the Albigenses (also known as Cathars) held the view that the physical world was evil. Manicheanism, an ancient heresy, was being revived, and it gained favor in part because locals saw the priests' material prosperity and rejected it as anti-Christian. Like the Apostles, the Cathar perfecti (the equivalent of priests) would walk the countryside preaching to the people while taking nothing with them.

Those who preached and lived in poverty in accordance with the Gospels were driving poor people away from the True Faith; perhaps it was more their way of life than their preaching that drew the people. Dominic and Diego stayed at an inn run by an Albigensian heretical family while they were traveling. Dominic learned this and started to probe the innkeeper. According to reports, the two of them debated doctrine and scripture the entire night. By dawn the following morning, Dominic had so tenderly trained this guy that he fell on his knees, confessed his heresy, and begged the good father's pardon.

Dominic revealed to Diego his plans to start a preaching order following this encounter. This order would travel around like the Cathars did, begging for their living and engaging in direct dialogue with the populace, as well as restore church discipline in southern France. Dominic, however, would preach the Truth of Christ and His Church—he would fight this tremendous heresy one person at a time—in contrast to the Cathars.

Following the completion of their royal mission, Diego and Dominic traveled to Rome to get permission from the pope to form this new preaching order. Diego was highly interested by Dominic's concept. However, Innocent III rejected their plan and requested that they work with the Cistercians in Languedoc, whom he had already assigned the job of putting an end to the Albigensian heresy. Dominic and Bishop Diego went back to France eager to comply, only to discover that the Cistercians had made conditions worse. The Cistercians' opulent lifestyle had successfully persuaded the populace that the Cathars were correct: their lack of destitution was interpreted as proof that they lacked faith and an understanding of Christ. As a result of Dominic and Diego's prompt correction of their brother priests, the Cistercians gradually realized their error.

Noble families had been sending their daughters to convents for education for years in France, only to discover that the convents had fallen prey to heresy and the women had never received the correct instruction in the faith. Dominic established a monastery in Prouille in the year 1206, with the intention of providing nuns who had renounced the Albigensian heresy with a safe haven. He gave these ladies the assignment to pray for his preaching mission. As a result, the community that would eventually give rise to the Second Order of Dominicans was founded.

Dominic had a deep love for Our Lady and saw in her a powerful patroness for his order. Dominic used to spend a entire nights in prayer, and once Mary came to see him and showed him a vision of heaven: His spirit was suddenly rapt before God, and he noticed Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin seated to His right. Dominic had the impression that Our Lady wore a cape blue in color. Dominic wept bitterly and stood far away, not daring to approach the Lord and His mother, as he could see religious of all the orders gathered around the throne of God except for his own. Our Lady then signaled for him to approach.

However, he resisted until Our Lord Himself called him as well. Blessed Dominic then threw himself in front of them while wailing vehemently. However, after commanding him to stand, Our Lord questioned him, "Why are you weeping so?" I'm crying because I don't see any indication of my own order among the numerous orders present. "Do you want to see your Order?" the Lord asked him. to which he said, "Yes, Lord." Then Our Lord remarked to Dominic, "I have given your Order to my Mother," placing his hand on the shoulders of the Blessed Virgin.

Then he questioned him once more, "Do you still wish to see your Order?" and once more he responded, "Yes, Lord." Dominic observed a sizable number of the brethren under the Blessed Virgin's spread-out cape, which appeared to be large enough to cover the entirety of heaven. Dominic then bowed down and thanked God and Blessed Mary, His Mother.

Saint Dominic was distressed in 1214 because his efforts to persuade the Albigensian Cathar heretics to change their ways were failing. St. Dominic attributed this to the seriousness and depth of the heretics' wickedness as well as the poor conduct of Catholics. To quell the wrath of the All-Powerful God, he went into the forest by himself and cried and prayed nonstop for three days. He scourged his flesh and flogged his body. He fell into a coma as a result of fasting, pain, and exhaustion.

While in a coma, Dominic saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which eternally established a connection between Saint Dominic and the rosary. "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" the Immaculate Mary asked St. Dominic when she arrived with three angels. Dominic replied that because the Blessed Mary is a vital element of our salvation, she knew better than he did.

The Angelic Psalter*, which is the cornerstone of the New Testament, has always served as the battering ram in this type of conflict, Mary retorted. Therefore, preach my Psalter if you want to reach these hardened souls and convert them to God.

He taught the Holy Rosary to the unconverted Albigenisan heretics not long after this apparition. The Saint Dominic Rosary's design was created to alter the Paternoster (150 Our Fathers) and in accordance with the revelation in the apparition. He separated the fifteen rosary mysteries into three groups of five decades each. Joyous Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and Glorious Mysteries were the names given to the divisions. The Albigensian heretics used this design to better comprehend and emulate the moral behavior of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Immaculate and Blessed Mary.

The 150 Psalms make up the Psalter, and the "Angelic Salutation" is the "Hail Mary" prayer. She therefore requested 150 Hail Marys, or the Holy Rosary's 15 decades of Hail Marys and its 15 accompanying Mysteries.

With six companions, Dominic moved into a home provided by wealthy Toulousen Peter Seila in 1215. In order to meet the spiritual demands of the era's expanding cities, Dominic recognized the need for a new kind of organization—one that would combine commitment and systematic instruction with greater organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. Bishop Foulques granted him and his companions written permission to preach across Toulouse's realm once they submitted to the monastic precepts of prayer and penance.

Dominic and Foulques traveled to Rome in 1215, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, to win Pope Innocent III's support. After Dominic returned to Rome a year later, Honorius III, the new pope, eventually gave him official permission in December 1216 to found the Ordo Praedicatorum (the "Order of Preachers").

William of Montferrat, who joined Dominic as a monk in the Order of Preachers and became a close companion, and Dominic first met in the winter of 1216–1217 at the home of Ugolino de' Conti. Dominic passed away at the age of 51, "exhausted with the austerities and labors of his career." He arrived "weary and sick with a fever" in the convent of St. Nicholas in Bologna, Italy.

Dominic "made the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upon the ground," and "the little time that remained to him was spent in admonishing his disciples to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty." On August 6 at noon, he passed away.[10] In 1233, his corpse was placed to a straightforward tomb. Dominic was declared a saint in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX. The shrine was built by Nicola Pisano and his workshop for the Church of St. Dominic in Bologna, and Dominic's relics were transferred there in 1267.

PATRON: Astronomers; astronomy; scientists; falsely accused people.

PRAYER: O glorious St. Dominic, filled with a burning zeal for the salvation of souls, and armed with a powerful preaching, you bore witness to the truth and spread abroad the light of the Gospel. Obtain for us a share in your love for God and man, so that, following your example, we may work with tireless energy to bring all people to the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.