Dominic

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Titian : St. Dominic , ca.1565

Dominikus ( Latin Dominicus ; Spanish: Domingo ; * around 1170 in Caleruega near Burgos , Old Castile ; † August 6, 1221 in Bologna , Italy ) was the founder of the Ordo Praedicatorum (order of preachers, usually called Dominicans ). He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Anglican Churches .

Life

Caravaggio : Rosary Madonna , around 1601, Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna - St. Dominic (left) hands out rosaries to the faithful at Mary's behest.

youth

Dominikus was born into a wealthy family in Caleruega , his parents Felix and Johanna probably worked as merchants. The earlier thesis that Dominic comes from the noble family of Guzmán has been refuted. The family was close to the church: one of his brothers was a secular priest who was involved in nursing the sick in a hospital. His brother Manes later also joined the order of preachers. The mother Johanna and the brother Manes were beatified.

At the age of five, Dominic was taken to a maternal uncle who was archpriest . There he was tutored until he began studying fine arts in Palencia at the age of 14 . Soon after, he began to study theology and philosophy . Impressed by a famine, he sold his own books while studying to help those in need with the proceeds.

Canon time

In 1196 he became Canon of the Canon Regulars at the Cathedral of El Burgo de Osma and in 1201 Subprior .

At the beginning of the 13th century, Dominic traveled with his bishop Diego de Acebo through southern France, where the Cathar movement was at its height at that time . It struck him that the Albigensians, as the Cathars in southern France were called after their stronghold Albi , attracted people through the strict asceticism and intellectual level of their leaders. This was in stark contrast to the dissolute way of life of the bishops and the often poor theological education of the priesthood. The Cathars also preached to the common people, which in the Catholic Church at that time was reserved only for the bishops and a few of these commissioners. Convinced that there were better means than violence to combat heresy , Dominic joined a group of Cistercian abbots on the mission of Pope Innocent III rather by chance - initially together with his bishop . and led a life as an itinerant preacher in the areas of Languedoc . Initially, this brought him little success, but insults, threats and stones. He soon realized that the sermon of the Cistercian legates had little success because of their pompous appearance. He combined his sermon with a disciplined spiritual life and intensive study to find the best possible arguments against heresy, and engaged in theological disputes with the Cathars. Bishop Diego founded a convent in Prouille . Dominikus was close to this, and it was intended to form a counterpoint to the Cathar women's monasteries, in which many, including non-Cathar girls, received an education. The Archbishop of Toulouse , Folquet de Marselha , put a church at his disposal and determined that the sixth part of the tithe of his diocese should go to the Community of Dominic. At the beginning of 1215, Petrus Seilhan Dominikus donated his house to this church and was accepted into the community of preachers himself. The community now had its own location in Toulouse.

House of Saint Dominic in Toulouse

On March 12, 1208, the Cistercian and papal legate Pierre de Castelnau , under the toleration of Count Raimund VI. of Toulouse , murdered. This gave Pope Innocent III. the long-sought occasion to demand the support of northern French princes and the King of France to launch a crusade against the Cathars and their local supporters, in particular the Count of Toulouse ( Raimund VI. ) and the Vice-Count of Béziers (see: Albigensian Crusade ) company. Dominikus had had a personal relationship with Simon IV de Montfort , the leader chosen by the French participants, since 1204. He followed his army, but was primarily concerned with preaching in the conquered places. From 1212 to 1215 he was offered a diocese three times, but Dominic refused each time.

Founding of the order

In 1215 he and six others founded a community in Toulouse with the purpose of spreading Roman Catholic doctrine and combating heresy . In the same year the fourth Lateran Council took place in Rome , the tenth chapter of which calls for an intensification of preaching and pastoral care. As Dominic with Pope Innocent III. asked for confirmation of the founding of the order, this was initially refused and he was encouraged to adopt an existing rule of the order. So Dominic accepted the rule of Augustinian canons . He added stricter rules on property, poverty and study to the rule, based on the experience that it was above all the material secularization of the church and its ministers that damaged their credibility in the population and encouraged the development of heresies . However, he allowed pensions to a limited extent from the beginning, and he also added monastic ascetic rules. On December 22nd, 1216 the order was confirmed by the Pope in a bull , in 1217 the name "Preacher" was mentioned for the first time in another bull.

Expansion of the order

Dominic on his deathbed (miniature from the Alsatian Legenda Aurea , Strasbourg 1419)

From the beginning, the Order of the Brothers Preachers - the official name of the Dominicans - emphasized study, in stark contrast to Francis of Assisi , who did not even allow his brothers to own a psalter . The Dominicans had to be intellectually well equipped to face the arguments of the heretics, and therefore their novices received careful training. In 1217 Dominic sent the brothers to Spain and Paris, leaving only a small part in Toulouse. The reason for this was probably the politically unstable situation in southern France. Pope Honorius III first used the term "brothers of the order of preachers" in a bull of February 11th. Dominic was in Rome at this time and sent some brothers to the up-and-coming university city of Bologna. In the second half of 1218 he traveled to Spain and visited the convent of the nuns in Madrid and the convent of brothers in Segovia, in July 1219 a stay in Paris is attested, during which it was mainly about the clarification of the poverty question, i.e. how poor the brothers were actually supposed to live, and in August 1219 he was in Bologna. At the turn of the year 1219/1220 his previously cherished desire to proselytize the Gentiles is said to have flared up again, but the reform of the Roman nunneries intervened, for which he had been asked by the Pope. In May 1220 the first general chapter of the new order finally took place in Bologna, followed by a trip to Lombardy in autumn . Shortly afterwards he was back in Rome and founded the convent of Santa Sabina . In June 1221 the second general chapter took place in Bologna. The order grew rapidly: in the four years after it was founded, nine priories were established in Italy, six in France and two in Spain, the brothers preached in England, Scandinavia, Hungary and Germany with a total of 60 convents. Dominican professors were soon teaching in Paris and Bologna. Dominic traveled from monastery to monastery and preached with great success himself (legend has it that he converted tens of thousands in Lombardy).

Death and burial

On August 6, 1221, Dominic died at the age of 51 after several weeks of illness in Bologna in the name of holiness. According to tradition, Dominic died in the bed of a confrere because he did not have his own. He was described by his confreres as a balanced, kind and happy man with a lot of compassion for all kinds of ailments. On May 24, 1233, in the presence of Archbishop Theodoricus of Ravenna, the tomb of Dominic was opened to transfer his relics . In 1264 Niccolò Pisano commissioned a new sarcophagus, the Arca di San Domenico , in which the remains of the saint rest.

Adoration

Arca di San Domenico in Bologna (by Niccolò Pisano )

Dominic was on July 13, 1234 by Pope Gregory IX. canonized . His feast day in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church is August 8th . This memorial day can also be found in the calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America .

In the Roman Catholic Church, St. Dominic as the patron saint of astronomers, scientists, the falsely accused, the Dominican Republic and the cities of Bologna , Madrid and Cordoba . He is usually represented with the attributes of a cross , rosary , book and globe, lilies , a star over the forehead and a dog with a burning torch.

In 1963 the Belgian nun Sœur reached Sourire with a song about St. Dominikus was number 1 on the US hit parade under the title Dominique .

Patronage

literature

Web links

Commons : Dominikus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

Dominikus on the altar of the Church of St. Johannes Baptista in Wuchzenhofen with some of his attributes
  1. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 22.
  2. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 21.
  3. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 28.
  4. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 38.
  5. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 131.
  6. ↑ a b Paul D. Hellmeier: Meet Dominikus . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 48.
  7. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 42.
  8. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 53f.
  9. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 55.
  10. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 56.
  11. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 58.
  12. ↑ a b Paul D. Hellmeier: Meet Dominikus . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 62.
  13. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 64.
  14. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 65f.
  15. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 70f.
  16. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 74.
  17. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 77.
  18. ↑ Paul D. Hellmeier: Dominikus encounter . St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936484-92-2 , p. 83.
predecessor government office successor
- Order general of the Dominicans
1216–1221 		Jordan of Saxony
personal data
SURNAME Dominic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dominicus (Latin form of name); Domingo (Spanish form of name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers
BIRTH DATE around 1170
PLACE OF BIRTH Caleruega , Spain
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1221
PLACE OF DEATH Bologna , Italy