St. Dominic

St. Dominic - Patron of Astronomers - August 4th

This famous founder of the Dominican Order was a Spaniard and the son of Blessed Joan of Aza. Her first two sons were already grown up when she asked Our Lord to send her another son. In a vision she received the happy news that the next son to be born to her would be a shinning light in the Church. That was Dominic.

The little boy left his mother when he was seven to begin school with his uncle, a priest. After years of study he became a priest himself and lived a quiet life of prayer and obedience with other virtuous priests. But God had other plans for Dominic: he was meant to found the Dominican Order of Preachers to preach the Faith and wipe out false teachings. It all began on a trip through southern France, where heresy called Albigensianism was doing great harm. St. Dominic felt such pity for the people who had joined it that he felt such pity for the people who had joined it that he felt inspired to help them.

St. Dominic’s Order of Preachers conquered that dangerous heresy with the weapons the Saint gave them: prayer, especially the holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, humility, mortification and preaching. Once when someone asked Dominic 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 love.” He always prayed that he might be filled with a true love of neighbor and he urged his priests to be devoted to the study of the Bible and to prayer. No one did more than St. Dominic and his preachers to spread the beautiful practice of saying the Holy Rosary.

St. Dominic was a brilliant preacher, while St. Francis of Assisi was a humble beggar. Yet, they were close friends and with their two Orders of Dominicans and Franciscans, they made Christians everywhere holier. 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 St. Francis, but at that time, the two Saints did not know each other. Next day, in church, he saw a ragged beggar whom he recognized as the man in the vision. It was St. Francis. Dominic embraced him and said: “you are my companion, and must walk with me. For If we stay together, no power on earth will be able to resist us!”

We, too, will win all our difficulties with the Holy Rosary.