St. Dominic Guzmán (1170 - 1221) founded the mendicant Order of Preachers (Dominicans), received the Rosary through a miraculous visit from the Blessed Virgin, defeated the Albigensians, and helped reform and reinvigorate the Church.
GOD'S PROVIDENCE
Dominic was born at Calaruega, in Spain of the noble family of the Guzmans. His mother, Blessed Joan of Aza, already had two grown up sons when she begged Our Lord to send her another son. While Bl. Joan was pregnant with Dominic, she received a vision that she was carrying in her womb a little dog holding a torch in his mouth, with which, as soon as he was born, he would set fire to the world. This dream signified that he would be a shining light to the world by his teaching and enkindle Christian piety among the nations by the splendor of his sanctity. Events proved its truth: for he fulfilled the prophecy both in person and later on by the brethren of his order. When he was seven, he left his family home to begin school with his uncle, a priest. Dominic went through his liberal and theological studies at Palencia. He made great progress in learning, and after years of study became a Canon Regular of the church of Osma and lived a quiet life of prayer and obedience with other virtuous priests. But God had other plans for him: he was meant to found the Order of Preachers to teach the Faith and wipe out heresy.
[column size="2-3" last="0"]HERESY!
It all began on a trip through Southern France, where the Albigensian heresy was doing great harm. These heretics ascribed to a form of 'Dualism.' This is a belief in two equally powerful gods or supernatural principles. One of them is good and created the spiritual world, the other is evil and created the natural world. The Albigensian rejected much of the Old Testament as work of the evil God. They denied the efficacy of the Sacraments (which require material reality) as well as the resurrection of the body. The Albigensian were notorious for lax morals, superstition, and a tendency to violence. Upon seeing the devastation they caused, and the souls they led to hell, Dominic felt such pity for the people who had fallen prey to these errors that he felt inspired to help save their souls.
THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
He met with very little success. In the year 1214, he was so distraught that he withdrew to a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a kind of coma. At this point, Our Lady appeared to him accompanied by three angels, and she said: "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" Dominic replied, "Oh my Lady, you know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation." Then Our Lady told him: "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter." She then gave him the Holy Rosary and instructed him in its composition of fifteen mysteries and its use in meditation and forming virtue. He followed her advice of preaching the Rosary everywhere, and thus he worked many great miracles and wrought many conversions. Within seven years the Albigensian heresy was largely defeated by Our Lady, she who crushes the serpent and destroys all heresies.
The following year, Our Lady would appear to St. Simon Stock and give him the Brown Scapular (16 July 1215). She promised Dominic, "One day I will save the world through the Rosary and the Scapular." [It would appear that this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled and we should all be fervently devoted to these most powerful Marian devotions.]
FOUNDING OF THE DOMINICANS
Dominic also went to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) with the Bishop of Toulouse. He sought to obtain from Innocent III the confirmation of the order he had instituted. But while the matter was under consideration that Pope advised Dominic to return to his disciples, and choose a rule. On his return to Rome, he obtained the confirmation of the Order of Preachers from Honorius III, the immediate successor of Innocent. In Rome itself he founded two monasteries, one for men and the other for women. He raised three dead to life, and worked many other miracles, in consequence of which the Order of Preachers began to spread in a wonderful manner. Dominic urged his priests to be devoted to the study of the Scriptures and to prayer. Once, when someone asked what book he used to prepare his sermons, which converted so many people, the Saint said, "The only book I use is the book of holy charity." He always prayed that he might be filled with a true love of God and love of neighbor and exhorted his disciples to do the same. St. Dominic founded many Dominican convents and universities, one of the most famous being at Bologna. [/column][column size="1-3" last="1"]
Note the dog and torch as per his mother's dream.
Our Lady gives St. Dominic the most Holy Rosary.
St. Dominic provides a rule for his order modeled on St. Augustine's.Once, in a vision, St. Dominic saw Our Blessed Mother praying to save the sinful world from being punished. She pointed two figures out to her Son; one St. Dominic recognized as himself. The other was unknown to him. The next day in church, St. Dominic saw a ragged beggar whom he recognized as the man in his vision. It was St. Francis of Assisi! Dominic embraced him and said, "You are my brother, and must walk with me. For if we stay together, no power on earth will be able to resist us!" The brilliant teacher and humble beggar became fast friends and a lasting bond developed between the two Orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. Once when St. Francis stopped in Bologna, he was scandalized by the opulence and lack of graciousness at the Franciscan monastery. He promptly departed and sought lodging instead at the more rustic Dominican friary. Ever since, the Dominicans and Franciscans have readily offered each other gracious hospitality and celebrated the feasts of the other's founders as if it were there own. Together, St. Dominic and St. Francis did much to save Christendom and make Christians everywhere holier.
St. Dominic helped guide many to become saints. When St. Peter Martyr was only 15 he met Dominic and followed him into the Order. Later he became the head of the Pope's congregation for the Faith. When St. Hyacinth was in Rome he witnessed a miracle by St. Dominic and became one of his disciples. He is known as the great apostle of Poland, though he also evangelized all over Scandinavia. He met and influenced Queen Blanche, the holy mother of King St. Louis IX. Perhaps his most brilliant disciple was St. Albert the Great, who rose to become a Doctor of the Church and was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Raymond of Peñafort was a fellow Spaniard and became the third Superior of the Order. Bl. Reginald of Orleans learned so much from him that he then helped the Order flourish greatly throughout France. Holy Mother Church has appointed him patron of canonists. The long line of saint from the Dominican family tree serves as a great witness to the wisdom and holiness of their founder. Among the best known Dominicans we find St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Rose of Lima, St. Louis de Montfort, St. Margaret of Castello, St. Antonius of Florence, St. Vincent Ferrer, Pope St. Pius V, St. Louis Bertrand, St. Martin de Porres, St. Margaret of Hungary, St. Agnes of Montepulciano, Bl. Fra Angelico (the great artist), and Bl. Imelda Lambertini, patron saint of First Communicants.
ENTRANCE INTO GLORY
Monasteries were built by his means in every part of the world, and through his teaching numbers of men embraced a holy and religious manner of life. At length, in the year of Christ 1221, he fell into a fever at Bologna. When he saw he was about to die, calling together his brethren and children, he exhorted them to innocence and purity of life, and left them as their true inheritance the virtues of charity, humility, and poverty. While the brethren were praying round him, at the words, ‘Come to his aid, ye saints of God, run to meet him, O ye angels,’ he fell asleep in the Lord, on the eighth of the Ides of August. Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) placed him among the saints.