St.

Dominic De Guzman
Founder of the Order of Preachers
Opening Prayer
• O glorious Saint Dominic, thou who was a
model of mortification and purity, by
punishing thy innocent body with scourges,
with fastings, and with watchings, and by
keeping inviolate the lily of thy virginity, obtain
for us the grace to practice penance with a
generous heart and to keep unspotted the
purity of our bodies and our hearts. Amen
St Dominic De Guzman
Dominic means “ belonging to
God”.
• born in about 1170 in Caleruega, Spain
His parents:
• Don Felix de Guzman, a knight in
the service of the King of Castile
• Blessed Jane of Aza.
• His two brothers –
Anthony was a priest
and Canon of the
Military Order of St.
James,
• Blessed Mannes joined
St. Dominic in the
Order of Preachers.
St Dominic’s parents were very
Dominican people because they
both always helped the poor and
always went to church with St
Dominic and his brothers nearly
every day.
Blessed Jane of Aza’s vision
• Struggling with infertility,
she was making a pilgrimage
to the
Abbey of Santo Domingo de
Silos
in Spain when she dreamed
that a dog jumped from her
womb holding a torch and
set everything around them
on fire.
Jane of Aza’s dream
• In her dream she saw a
spotted dog with a flaming
torch in its mouth, ready to
set the world on fire.
• This dream prefigured what
St. Dominic was to be a
preacher who would spread
the light of truth
• It is said that when
Dominic was baptized,
his godmother saw
something like a star
shining on his
forehead.
• Again, this symbolized
what Dominic was to
be a bearer of Christ’s
light.
• Soon after, she
conceived a son with
her husband and
named him after the
11th century
St. Dominic of Silos, for
whom the abbey she
had visited had been
named.
• At the age of seven Saint Dominic's parents placed
him under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, a
parish priest at the collegiate church of Gumiel
d’Izan, not far distant from Calaruega.
• Here the young lad received his primary instructions,
which, according to the medieval custom, consisted
mainly in reading from the Latin Fathers.
• His piety was already intense, and he would wander
into the church to listen to the chant, or when his
mood so disposed, he would sit a long while gazing
at the paintings in the church, which made their
appeal to his religious instincts.
• At 14, he entered the
University of Palencia
where he undertook the
requisite studies for
priesthood.
• In Palencia, he learned to
live an ascetic lifestyle,
devoting himself to
intense prayer, acts
of penance, and study of
theology
• St Dominic studied very hard
every day to become a priest.
• He studied at University of
Palencia and became an assistant
priest to the bishop.
• St. Dominic de Guzman,
A Man of Prayer.mp4
St Dominic was a great man
• The symbol of a dog with a flame represents
St Dominic when his mom dreamed that she
would give birth to a dog who would hold a
torch in its mouth and burn the world.
• While in Palencia, a severe famine broke
out.
• This tragic event was a result of the war
between the Christians and the Moslems in
Spain.
• Moved with pity towards those who were
dying of hunger, Dominic sold his
possessions, including the books which his
own hands annotated, just to be able to
contribute a little in alleviating the people
from their miserable condition
• In the year 1195, at the age of 24, Dominic
was ordained to the priesthood.
• He was assigned as a Canon Regular in the
Cathedral Chapter of Osma. Canons were
priests directly under the bishop. They took
care of the religious ceremonies in the
Cathedral, as well as of the administration of
parishes in the diocese. The Canons of Osma
followed the Augustinian way of life
Vision of St. Dominic receiving the Holy
Rosary from mama Mary
In the year 1205, King Alfonso IX of Castile sent the
Bishop of Osma, Don Diego, to a diplomatic mission to
the Lord of the Marches. The Bishop took Dominic with
him. At that time, Dominic was the sub-prior of Osma.
This journey would change the course of Dominic’s life.
On their stop-over in Toulouse, Southern France,
Dominic had a first-hand experience of the Albigensian
Heresy which was gradually poisoning the faith of
Europe

The heresy - believe that there are two “gods”

- god of evil - one responsible for the material order
- god of good – one responsible for the spiritual order
Everything material is evil. People resented
the human body, food, sex, the
sacraments, and everything material.
The sooner a person is liberated from
the body, through severe acts of
mortification and even through
induced death, the better.
Due to some unexpected circumstances,
Dominic’s diplomatic mission was aborted.
Don Diego decided that they would just go
to Rome to have an audience with the Holy
Father, Pope Innocent III, and report on the
sad conditions of those who had fallen into
the Albigensian heresy.
• In response to their report, the Pope
made Bishop Diego the unofficial leader
of a Papal mission to convert the
Albigensians. The Bishop took Dominic
with him. They lived simply, and the
spoke with great conviction. They
engaged in ordinary day-to-day
conversations with people, in contrast
to the formality of other missionaries
• In 1206, not knowing how to start converting the
Albigensians, St. Dominic prayed to Our Lady for a
sign. Three times he saw light descending on an
old church in Prouille.
• Dominic gathered the women he had converted
from the heresy and brought them to Prouille
where they eventually became a community of
nuns. Hence, the first Dominicans were women.
• The Prouille Community served as an
information center, a school for children, and
a refuge for women who escaped the hostile
world of the Albigensians
On one occasion in Rome, St.
Dominic had a vision of a beggar
who will be his companion in doing
great things for the faith. The next
day, he met the beggar and
embraced him. He was St. Francis
of Assisi.
Dominic spent the rest of his
life traveling, preaching the
light of truth, and organizing
new communities.

On August 6, 1221, (other

sources say August 4) he died
in Bologna.
Tomb of St.
Dominic
On July 13, 1234, he was
In Bologna
canonized by Pope Gregory IX.
In the year 1215, Dominic,
having organized a
community of men, went to
Rome to seek for the Pope’s
approval of his religious
order.

At that time, the Lateran

Council had just been
concluded, and it had been
decided that no new religious
orders shall be established.
Pope Innocent III, however, allowed
Dominic and his men to live as a
community, but were to follow an
already existing religious rule. In the
case of the Dominicans, they adopted
the rule of St. Augustine.

In the year 1216, the new pope,

Honorius III, gave his approval to the
Order of Friars Preachers and gave
them right to preach anywhere in the
world.
The Holy Rosary is a Marian
Devotion attributed to St.
Dominic. Though the Rosary
antedated him, St. Dominic and
his order were instrumental in
propagating this devotion to the
Blessed Mother. It is said that
Dominic had a vision of Our
Lady giving him the Rosary as a
weapon against the
Albigensians.
The Rosary is a
meditation on the life of
our Lord, who through his
Incarnation sanctified the
human flesh and
consequently the material
order. Hence the Rosary
was a powerful weapon
against the Albigensian
heresy.
Some of the reasons why St Dominic
became a saint was because:
• he raised to life a widow’s son from the
dead.
• He also in 1191 gave away all his
money, sold his clothes, furnitures and
even very precious manuscripts to feed
the hungry.
DOMINICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES
• The first Dominicans to set foot on Philippine
soil were Spaniards who sailed from Acapulco.
They arrived in the Philippines on June 21, 1587.
They are the ones responsible for converting to
Christianity the people of Bataan, Zambales,
Cavite, Laguna, Pangasinan, Cagayan Valley and
the Batanes and Babuyanes Islands.
• The first Bishop of Manila was a Dominican,
Domingo de Salazar O.P. The third bishop and
first Archbishop was Miguel de Benavidez, O.P.,
founder of UST. Five other members of the
Order became Archbishops of Manila.
 THREE POPULAR MARIAN DEVOTIONS IN THE
PHILIPPINES ORIGINATED FROM THE DOMINICAN
MISSIONS:

OUR LADY OF LA OUR LADY OF OUR LADY OF

NAVAL MANAOAG PIAT
Quezon City Pangasinan Cagayan
In Manila itself the Dominicans
founded the University of
Santo Tomas in 1611 and
Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Many Dominican Missionaries
who worked in the Philippines
eventually died as martyrs
elsewhere in Asia. Some of
them were administrators,
professors, and students of
UST.
 God of Truth
you gave your church a new light
in the life and preaching of our
Father Dominic.
Give us the help we need to
support our preaching
by holy and simple lives.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ, you Son,
who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.
AMEN.

ST. DOMINIC DE GUZMAN, PRAY FOR US.

 Timeline of the Life of St. Dominic

• 1170 Domingo de Guzmán is born in Caleruega, Spain.

1184 Dominic attends the university in Palencia.
1190 He is appointed to the canonry at Osma.
1203 Dominic accompanies his holy bishop to the
Marches of France.
1206 On the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Saint
Dominic has a vision.
1207 Bishop Diego dies and Saint Dominic takes
charge of the small band of preachers.
1208 Servants of an Albigensian count murder a papal
legate, giving the heresy more political significance.
 Timeline of the Life of St. Dominic

1211 Saint Dominic’s prayers save drowning pilgrims.

1215 Dominic goes to the Lateran Council.
1216 Pope Honorius III succeeds Innocent III. Dominic sets
out for Rome to complete the foundation.
1217 The founder is allowed to return to Toulouse in May
of 1217.
1218 By January 1218, Dominic had walked back to Rome.
1219 Dominic then travels through France to his Spanish
homeland, and then as far as Paris by June of 1219.
1220 The first General Chapter of the Order is held in
Bologna around Pentecost, 1220.
1221 Death of St. Dominic – Friday, August 6, 1221 –
about 6PM.
 Prayer to Saint Dominic

• I. O glorious Saint Dominic, thou who was a

model of mortification and purity, by
punishing thy innocent body with scourges,
with fastings, and with watchings, and by
keeping inviolate the lily of thy virginity, obtain
for us the grace to practice penance with a
generous heart and to keep unspotted the
purity of our bodies and our hearts. Amen
 Prayer to Saint Dominic

• O great Saint, who, inflamed with

divine love, didst find thy delight in
prayer and intimate union with God;
obtain for us to be faithful in our
daily prayers, to love Our Lord
ardently, and to observe His
commandments with ever-increasing
fidelity.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be