Dominic
1170–1221
Feast: August 4
You do not keep the truth to yourself: once you have understood something, it has to reach people. That is Dominic. In a famine he sells his precious books to feed the starving, people matter more than parchment. As a canon of Osma he sets out and preaches to the Cathars in southern France: not with force, but with words, poverty, and prayer. Out of that preaching grows a mendicant order of scholars, the Preachers, who bear his name to this day. According to tradition, he receives the rosary from the Mother of God: the contemplation that gives his words their power. Preaching truth out of contemplation, that is his life. And you: do you speak what you have come to know in silence?
From his life
- Canon of Osma
- Preaching against the Cathars
- Mendicant Order of Preachers
- Rosary tradition (according to tradition), marked as such
The bridge to tradition
Preaching truth out of contemplation, and the rosary remains, to this day, the prayer of tradition.