Spain is blessed with a large list of some of the most magnificent saints, including St. Dominic, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius of Loyola, just to name a few. Today we will look at a few highlights of the life of St. Dominic.
We all know St. Dominic, or Domingo de Guzmán (1170-1221) indirectly, because he was the founder of the Dominicans. The Dominicans are also called the “Order of Preachers,” and are often identified by the white habits they wear. Yet even if they wear white, they also have a black garment (coppa) they wear over the white. Because of this black garment, they are called Blackfriars; the Carmelites are the Whitefriars, and the Greyfriars are the Franciscans.
To Spain’s great credit, the Spanish St. Dominic gave us the Dominicans; the Spanish St. Ignatius gave us the Jesuits; the Spaniards Ss. John and Teresa gave us a reform of the Carmelites. That indeed is a portentous contribution to the Church!
He was a man of a high education, and probably from a wealthy family. On a trip to Denmark, with a Bishop and on behalf of the Spanish King, he came across the Cathars. This was a heretical Christian sect of bizarre customs, such as “ordaining” both men and women (yet both held to celibacy), dualism between “evil” matter and “good” spirit, and a whole train of doctrines in common with the ancient Manichaean heresy and with Gnosticism in general.
The Cathars arose in part as a protest to the corruption of the clergy of the day. St. Dominic saw prelates from Rome fail to persuade the Cathars to return to the Church, and he attributed their failure to their appearance of arrogance, famously saying:
“It is not by the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-housed palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth.”
This was in 1208. And he himself lived up to his own words.
By 1215, he found himself surrounded by a small group of companions, which eventually developed into a series of communities of preachers – hence the name, “Order of Preachers” – whom St. Dominic challenged to powerful preaching, not the power of pomp, but the power of witness (they lived austere and simple lives) and the power of the word (intellectual rigor but in a popular style for the faithful at large).
It is said that when St. Dominic was born, his mother had a vision of a dog leaping forth, and he “seemed to set the whole world on fire.” This Dominic did, with his powerful preaching and holiness of life. And his name in Latin, “Dominicus,” almost seems to say “The Lord’s hound,” or in Latin, “Domini canis.”
May St. Dominic, and all the Spanish saints, pray that this coming World Youth Day be an occasion for many graces for the young pilgrims, especially for the Trailblazers, and an opportunity to reinvigorate the faith in Spain in our day.
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