LOUISSE HOMER A.

NARCIASO
BSA - 1AA

SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ST. DOMINIC AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE

CHURCH.

St. Dominic, Spanish in full Santo Domingo de Guzmán. St. Dominic was born on
1170 at Caleruega, Castile (Spain). He later died on August 6, 1221 at Bologna,
Romagna (Italy). 13 years later he was canonized as a saint (July 3, 1234). St.
Dominic's feast day is on the 8th day of August. Domingo de Guzmán was born in
Castile, maybe one or two years after the customary birth year of 1170. His mother
was also a member of the local nobility, and his father was the lord of the manor in
the village. After completing his studies at Palencia, he moved to Osma and joined the
canons regular, a religious order associated with the diocese's cathedral. A few years
later, he was appointed sub-prior, or assistant to the superior.

The Order of Friars Preachers, also called Order of Preachers (O.P.) and Dominican
Order is one of the four principal orders of mendicants in the Roman Catholic Church,
established in 1215 by St. Dominic. Founded to preach the Gospel and to
oppose heresy, the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organization placed
the Preachers in the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages.[4] The order
is famed for its intellectual tradition, having produced many leading theologians and
philosophers. Friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay Dominicans are among its members.
The order has always been a blend of active ministry and a contemplative way of
living. The members have communal lives, and a delicate balance is kept between
powerful but elected superiors and democratically constituted chapters or legislative
assemblies. The Dominican order was not a collection of independent houses, as were
the monastic orders that came before it; rather, it was an army of priests, organized
into provinces under a master general and prepared to deploy whenever they were
required.