The New International Encyclopædia/Dominic, Saint

​DOM′INIC, Saint (1170–1221). The founder of the Order of Preaching Friars (Fratres Prædicatores), in the Roman Catholic Church. He was born at Callaroga in the north of Spain, probably of the illustrious Guzman family. He studied theology in Palencia, and in 1195 became canon of Osma in Castile. With his superior, Diego de Azevedo, Bishop of Osma from 1201, he made several journeys, one as far as Denmark. On their way back to Spain from a visit to Rome they found at Montpellier three Papal legates debating on the means to be adopted for the suppression of the Albigensian heresy, and recommended as the most efficient means the setting of a notable example of humility and self-denial. Dominic, with his bishop, began to preach throughout Languedoc, and in the following year founded at Prouille his first institution, an asylum for poor girls who were in danger of changing their faith through lack of means to resist the inducements held out by the rich and powerful adherents of the new belief. Whether he took part in the crusade of extermination against the Albigenses headed by Simon de Montfort after the murder of the Papal legate, Peter of Castelnau, is not known; but he labored incessantly for the conversion of the people at all times. From 1215 his life was spent in arduous work in connection with the Order which he founded in that year. (See Dominicans.) After holding the second general chapter of the Order at Bologna in 1221, he had made up his mind to preach the Gospel among the heathen Cumans, a Ugric tribe in Hungary, and, if possible, to gain the crown of martyrdom; but he died on August 6, at Bologna, where his body is buried in the Church of Saint Nicholas. Pope Gregory IX. canonized him in 1234. Consult: The original Life by Jordanus, De Principiis Ordinis Prædicatorum, ed. J. Berthier (Freiburg, 1892); Lacordaire, Vie de Saint Dominique (Brussels, 1841; Engl. trans., London, 1883); Drane, The Life of Saint Dominic (3d ed., London, 1891); Herkless, Francis and Dominic (New York, 1901); Guiraud, Saint Dominic (New York, 1901).