orig. Domingo de Guzmán
born 1170, Caleruega, Castile
died Aug. 6, 1221, Bologna, Romagna; canonized July 3, 1234; feast day August 8
Founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, or Dominican s.
He joined the religious community of the cathedral of Osma 0441; 1196. On a visit to southern France in 1203, he encountered the Albigensian heresy (see Cathari ) and determined to fight it. He gathered a group of preachers willing to travel the roads barefoot and in poverty, and in 1206 he founded a convent of nuns converted from heresy. While designing his order devoted to preaching, Dominic may first have met St. Francis of Assisi , who became his good friend. In 1216 he received sanction for his order from Pope Honorius III . He established schools of theology at his two principal houses near the Universities of Paris and Bologna.
St. Dominic, detail of a panel by the school of Messina (?), 15th century; in the Museo ...
Anderson
Alinari from Art Resource