Dominican Order

Order of the Preachers

ORTIGAS, Coleen
ZAFRA, Ray Allen
 2
The Dominican Order
• Recognized as one of the prominent
mendicant Orders of the Catholic
faith.
• Founded in Toulouse, France by
Spanish priest, the venerated Saint
Dominic De Guzman. The Order was
later officially confirmed into being
by Pope Honorius III.
• Known otherwise as the Order of
Preachers, the pious community and
its adherents were referred to in
numerous, varying names throughout
their domains.

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 The Dominican Charism, also
referred to as the Four Pillars:
• Prayer and Contemplation: Prayer is a reference point
through which we all better know God. The Eucharist and
the Liturgy of the Hours are the essential elements of
Dominican prayer.
• Study: “St. Dominic included study ordained to the ministry
Prayer and contemplation of salvation as part of the essential plan for our Order…
Ministry before all else, our study should aim principally and
ardently at this, that we might be able to be useful for the
souls of our neighbors.”
• Community: Each friar is actively involved in preaching.
The defining feature of Dominican legacy is the ardent,
zealous broadcasting of the Gospel’s truth, first and
foremost.
• Ministry: The integral nature of Dominican community life
lies in the fact that the community continually shapes,
supports and challenges each friar. More than just
residences, a priory is cherished as a home – a place where
the friar lives, prays, recreates and continually encounters Sample Footer Text

Christ in his brothers.

 Four Principal Branches

• The Friars: Brothers and Priests who take a solemn oath to the vows of chastity, indigence and deference; and
those who may be involved in varying forms of ministries.
• The Laity: People from all sectors of society who commit professional endeavors to the Dominican doctrine.

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 Four Principal Branches

• The Nuns: Women who dedicate their lives of prayer in monasteries and in their cloisters.
• The Sisters: Women who profess the simple vows and live in accordance to apostolic teachings along with the
prayer and community life that is the hallmark of the Dominicans.

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The Dominican Habit
The Dominican Cross

The Dominican motto: 'Benedicere,

Laudare, Praedicare' (to pray, to bless,
and to preach)
 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

• With the seeds of colonial imposition firmly planted and taking root in Philippine soil, Spain saw it fitting to
honor her obligation to the Holy See by propagating the Catholic faith to the pagan natives.

• Following the Augustinians, Franciscans and Jesuits; the Dominican Order established its first presence in the
archipelago with the arrival of Bishop Domingo Salazar and Fray Cristobal de Salvatierra in 1581.

• Although the inception of a bona fide Dominican community would not occur until six years later.

• Four were assigned posts in Bataan, six were sent to Pangasinan and the remaining five were appointed to the
walled city of Intramuros.
 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

• The fifteen Dominicans composed of thirteen priests and two lay brothers
arrived in Cavite on July 22, 1587, the eve of the feast of St. Mary
Magdalene, the apostola apostolorum and patroness of the Order. They
reached Manila on foot on July 25, feast of St. James the Apostle, patron of
Spain. Bishop Domingo de Salazar (1512-1594), Governor-General Santiago
de Vera (1584-1590) and the rest of the people joyfully welcomed them.
They were the heralds of the Gospel in the East.
• After the founding of their motherhouse, the Dominicans went directly to
their mission posts. At that time, the only religious in the islands were the
Augustinians, the Franciscans and the Jesuits. Four went to Bataan; six left
for Pangasinan; and the rest remained in Manila of which two were
engaged in the ministry to the Chinese.

Bishop Domingo de Salazar

 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

• Bataan was sparsely populated and the groups of natives were scattered in the mountains. Sometimes, the
missionaries rode small rowboats from one village to another, often 30 kms apart; but often times they were
forced to travel on foot on flooded or muddy terrain. They depended on the natives’ generosity for their
subsistence. Slowly, they convinced them to live together and thus the towns of Santo Domingo in Abucay,
Orani, Samal, Balanga, Orion and Hermosa were created. In the course of time, the process of Christianization
was accelerated.
• In Pangasinan, the towns of Santo Domingo of Binalatongan (now San Carlos City), Calasiao, Mangaldan and
Manaoag became focal points from which the missionary activities of the Dominicans spread to the rest of
Province including Northern Tarlac. The natives except those in the coastal town of Lingayen, opposed any
attempt of evangelization. This hostility could be due to the harsh collection of tribute by the Spanish
government since 1574 and the natives’ faithfulness to their supreme deity and reverence to their priests and
priestesses. Furthermore, there were some revolts that hindered the process of Christian growth like the
uprising of Andres Malong in 1662 and the revolt of Juan de la Cruz Palaris in 1762 during the British
occupation of Manila. The Dominicans labored strenuously to persuade the people to lay down their arms.
Bishop Salazar begged the Dominicans to abandon their Pangasinan mission, but they decided to stay at all
costs. It was only when they converted some influential natives that their missionary activity took a more
positive turn. By 1750, they had a total of eighteen mission stations.
The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

Calasiao Church, Pangasinan

 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

• In Manila, Santo Domingo convent, the motherhouse, served as the center of their
evangelizing activities. They also built the San Gabriel Hospital for the Chinese and
took care of their pastoral needs in Binondo and in Parian. In the field of education,
they had established the University of Santo Tomas in 1611 and founded the Colegio
de San Juan de Letran in 1620. Both still exists at present, witnessing to the
educational apostolate which the Dominicans have carried out for centuries.

Santo Domingo Church, Intramuros

The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Intramuros

University of Santo Tomas, Intramuros

 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

• In 1596, they were given the whole Cagayan Valley which was inhabited
by savage tribes. Evangelization was hard and costly both in labors and
lives. The main center was Santo Domingo in Lallo. The provinces of
Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya were much more difficult to evangelize than
Cagayan. However, by the middle of the eighteenth century, these
provinces became Christian.
• At the beginning of the seventeenth century, they made great effort to
evangelize the Mountain Province as well with their mission among the
Mandayas or Apayaos. They created small towns and built some
churches. All faded away in the course of time. However, they opened a
new mission in the Mountain Province towards the middle of the
nineteenth century.
Malaueg Church
 The Order of Preachers in the Philippines

The Dominican seal found in Gamu, Isabela Tumauini Church in Isabela Dupax del Sur Church in Nueva Vizcaya
 The Dominican Order

• Fr. Mateo Gonzales, OP first landed in Imnajbu in 1682 to survey the prospects of the evangelization of
Batanes. There, he celebrated the first holy mass on Ivatan soil and the first baptism administered. Their
missionary zeal crossed the Balintang Channel in the Babuyanes group of islands which today falls under the
jurisdiction of the province of Cagayan.

San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel

 Works and Contributions

• Doctrina Christiana en lengua espanola y tagala the very first book printed in 1593. It
was a little book of prayers written by Franciscan Friar Juan De Plasencia. He derived its
name from the Latin term Doctrina Christiana meaning the “teachings of the church”
• Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua China (Christian Doctrine in Chinese Language)
This book was signed by the whole group of Dominican Friars in Manila. It is also
compared to his work, ‘Shi-lu or Veritable Records’ written in Chinese by Dominican
Friar Juan Cobo. It consist of records of authentic tradition of the true faith in the
Infinite God, by the religious master Kao-mu Hsien as well as data about plants,
animals, astronomy, and geography.
• There were also other books that have been published before the end of the 16th
century but a new approach was used in printing these materials called the
‘Typographic method or movable type of printing’. Most of these writings were on the
teachings of the church, some where vocabularies, while the rest were historical. ‘Libro
De Nuestra Senora Del Rosario en lengua y letra de Filipinas’ published in 1602 and
‘Libro de los Cuatro Postrimerias del Hombre’ published in 1604, both works written by
Dominican Friar Francisco Blancas De San Jose and were considered as the first books
printed using the movable type approach. Philippine literary works did not stop here.
As a matter of fact, thousands of titles of books have been created and published from
1593 up to the present time in the Philippines resulting to the improvement and
Doctrina Christiana
development of the printing system and publication industry of the country.
Works and Contributions

Chinese Version by Dominican friar Juan Cobo and printed in 1593

Works and Contributions

San Lorenzo Ruiz

References:
Skrabania, J. (2020). The Philippines under the Spanish and American Colonisation (1565-1912). A historical-political-religious Development. Part
1. Nurt SVD, 148(2), 8-26.

Robertson, J. A. (1918). Catholicism in the Philippine Islands. The Catholic Historical Review, 3(4), 375-391.

Woods, D. (1991). Racial exclusion in the mendicant orders from Spain to the Philippines. UCLA Historical Journal, 11.

LeRoy, J. A. (1903). The friars in the Philippines. Political Science Quarterly, 18(4), 657-680.

Hinnebusch, W. A. (1975). The Dominicans. A Short History. New York: Alba House.

Dominican charism: St. Catherine's Academy, Catholic School in Anaheim, Orange County, CA. St. Catherine's Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved October
28, 2021, from
https://www.stcatherinesacademy.org/about/dominican-charism#:~:text=The%20Dominican%20Order%20is%20a,Gospel%20through%20words%
20and%20actions
.

Four branches of the Dominican Order. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2021, from
https://domlife.org/BeingDominican/WhoWeAre/BeingDominicanIndex.htm.
References:
History of Dominicans in the Philippines. (2018). A Research Paper Analysis In Social Science-Life, Works and Writings of
Rizal (06203, 2:30–3:30). Published. https://www.scribd.com/document/387622268/History-of-Dominicans-in-the-
Philippines

Nadeau, K. (2006). Guided By God: The Legacy of the Catholic Church in Philippine Politics. By Steven Shirley. Singapore:
Marshall Cavendish International, 2004. iii, 242 pp. $22.00 (paper). The Journal of Asian Studies, 65(3), 662–664.
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021911806001513

Cullum, L. (2016). Review: THE DOMINICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES. DOMINICOS DONDE NACE EL SOL. Historia de
La Provincia Del Santísímo Rosario de Filipinas de La Orden de Predicadores by Pablo Fernández. Published.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42719599

The Dominican Mission in the Philippines. (2017, October 10). Priest Stuff. http://prieststuff.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-
dominican-mission-in-philippines.html