Legend
In the earliest biography of Dominic, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominic's parents are not named, but the story is told that before his birth his mother dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth and set the world aflame. [1] Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and a maternal uncle who was an archbishop. [2] A later source, still of the 13th century, gives the names of Dominic's mother and father as Juana and Felix. [3] Nearly a century after Dominic's birth, a local author asserts that Dominic's father was vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo ("an honoured and wealthy man in his village"); [4] later hagiographers, elaborating on this, gradually developed identities for his father, said to be a member of the local noble family Guzmán and for his mother, who was eventually attached to the neighbouring noble Aza family.
Nothing is known of her childhood, but she probably married at a customarily young age. She and her husband, Felix, had four sons and a daughter. When the two older boys were grown, she went to the Abbey church at Silos to pray for another son. [5] She is said to have had a dream in which St. Dominic of Silos told her that she would have a son, who would be a shining light to the Church. She decided to name the child Dominic. [6]
According to Dominican tradition, his mother later saw the moon on his forehead, yet at his baptism, his godmother perceived it as a star. The boy was named probably after Saint Dominic of Silos whose nearby shrine was a favorite of his mother. [1]
Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, known as Catherine of Siena, was an Italian mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. Canonized in 1461, she is revered as a saint and as a Doctor of the Church due to her extensive theological authorship. She is also considered to have influenced Italian literature.
The Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius III via the papal bull Religiosam vitam on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally display the letters OP after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning 'of the Order of Preachers'. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay or secular Dominicans. More recently, there has been a growing number of associates of the religious sisters who are unrelated to the tertiaries.
Rose of Lima, TOSD was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her life of severe penance and her care of the poverty stricken of the city through her own private efforts. Rose of Lima was born to a noble family and is the patron saint of embroidery, gardening and cultivation of blooming flowers. A lay member of the Dominican Order, she was declared a saint by the Catholic Church, being the first person born in the Americas to be canonized as such.
Martín de Porres Velázquez was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, all those seeking racial harmony, and animals.
Hyacinth was a Polish Dominican priest and missionary who worked to reform the women's monasteries in his native Poland. Educated in Paris and Bologna, he was a Doctor of Sacred Studies.
Saint Dominic,, also known as Dominic de Guzmán, was a Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he and his order are traditionally credited with spreading and popularizing the rosary. He is alternatively called Dominic of Osma, Dominic of Caleruega, and Domingo Félix de Guzmán.
Jordan of Saxony, OP, was a German Catholic priest and one of the first leaders of the Dominican Order. His feast day is February 13.
Aurea or Oria (1043-1070), was a Spanish anchorite saint attached to the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, in the Spanish Province of La Rioja (Europe). She is commemorated on 11 March.
The Dominican Rite is the unique liturgical rite of the Dominican Order in the Catholic Church. It has been classified differently by different sources – some consider it a usage of the Roman Rite, others a variant of the Gallican Rite, and still others a form of the Roman Rite into which Gallican elements were inserted.
Dominic of Silos was a Spanish monk, to whom the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, where he served as the abbot, is dedicated. He is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church. His feast day is 20 December.
Louis Bertrand, OP was a Spanish Dominican friar who preached in South America during the 16th century, and is known as the "Apostle to the Americas". He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Giovanni Dominici, OP was an Italian Catholic prelate and Dominican who became a cardinal. His ideas had a profound influence on the art of Fra Angelico, who entered the Dominicans through him.
Zdislava Berka, TOSD was a Czech Dominican tertiary and philanthropist. She was a wife, mother, and one of the earliest lay Dominicans and is regarded a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Saint Markella or Marcella was an inhabitant of 14th century Chios who was canonized by the Greek Orthodox Church. Her feast day is celebrated on July 22.
Diana degli Andalò, OP, sometimes d'Andalo, was a Dominican nun who founded a convent for her order dedicated to Saint Agnes in Italy.
Rodrigo Muñoz de Guzmán or Rodrigo Núñez de Guzmán, considered the common ancestor of the noble house of Guzmán, was a Castilian magnate and tenente of Roa and of the village of Guzmán in Burgos, from which this lineage took its name.
Petrus Ferrandi Hispanus was a Dominican friar who wrote the Legenda sancti Dominici, a biography of Saint Dominic of Osma, and possibly also wrote the liturgy of the saint's feast.
Amata was a Dominican nun who co-founded the convent of St. Agnes in Bologna, Italy.
Cecilia Cesarini (1203-1290), also Caecilia, was a Dominican nun. Cecilia, described as "a high-spirited young Roman", was born into the Cesarini family, a well-established family of the minor nobility. The reason she entered into a religious life is unknown.
