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An Interesting Saint
by Fr. Patrick LaBelle, O.P. - from the bulletin of August 3, 1997

Recently the Pastor of the Lutheran Community on campus, Rev. Herb Schmidt, came into my office and announced that his son and daughter-in-law had a child and when he entered the world outside the womb his father said that his name would be Dominic. He wanted some information about this man and came to me because he knew that Dominic was the founder of my own religious community: The Dominicans. I shared some information with him, gave him a few books to read and a medal of Holy Father Dominic for his new grandson. He came back a few days later and informed me that St. Dominic was a terribly interesting man - worthy, certainly, of his grandson! I began to think about this holy and creative man because of these encounters and share some of those thoughts with you. Next Sunday [August 10, 1997] we celebrate the feast of this religious leader at our 4:30 Mass. By the way, the Bishop has determined that our new university parish would be under the patronage of St. Dominic.

Dominic de Guzman was born at Caleruega in Spain in 1170. He was bright and pious and took to studies with seriousness. After a few years study in his own city Dominic was sent to the University at Palencia. He took his degrees and was established a Canon of the Cathedral Church at Osma. In that position he lived in community and was at the disposal of the Dean of the Cathedral Chapter and the Bishop. He had a strong calling to missionary work but had little opportunity early in his career to service that desire. After some time, the Bishop was asked to take on a diplomatic journey to Denmark. As they traveled they confronted a peculiar religious sect called Albigensians. These folks were serious students, lived a very ascetical life and denied themselves any physical pleasures because they saw them as indulging the flesh. Their impact on the area of Southern France was overwhelming. Dominic was troubled with their behavior and the success of their preaching. He asked to be released to preach among them in defense of the Church. After a few tries his request was granted.

Shortly after he began this work he was joined by a few others and he saw himself called to establish a religious community to address the theological needs of the Church through preaching and simplicity of life. In 1216 he received approval for his new religious group and called them The Order of Preachers. While that remains the official title of the Order, it is better known as The Dominicans. His new religious family grew at an inordinate pace and as it grew he sent his friars to virtually every university center of Europe. Parish, Salamanca, Cologne, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Florence and beyond found the preaching friars living a simple life and preaching the Good News. Dominic lived just five years after the establishment of his Order but his heritage remains alive in both the persons and law of the Order. Nuns, Religious Sisters and lay persons join the friars in the work of preaching and are in every part of the world today. From a simple few to many thousands of Dominicans preach, teach, serve as chaplains, staff parishes and do missionary work world-wide. Headquartered in Rome at the ancient church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, St. Dominic's family attempts to keep the vision alive.

Dominic was an intentional religious founder. Some, St. Francis, for instance, had no intention of establishing a religious community. Dominic, on the other hand, wrote the Primitive Constitutions of the Order and they remain unchanged in the nearly 800 years of the Order's history. He included the basic principles of common law in his constitutions, giving rise to many historians claim that his insights into law was the source of that same vision in English Common Law and even in our own Constitutions. He thought of every possible problem and offered a direction for their solution. He reached out in a kind of organizational courage and introduced customs and practices entirely new to the Church. Dominic's family would be neither monks nor active clergy but, rather, both. He really initiated the "mixed life" in the Church. The goal he chose for the Order, Contemplata Aliis Tradere, was a challenge to his friars, nuns, sisters and lay followers. Contemplate and give the fruits of your contemplation to others, he charged. With a foot in a life of prayer and study, virtually indistinguishable for Dominic, and another in the busy world of the universities and beyond, Dominic's followers made an incredible impact on the Church.

Now Dominicans have not always been seen as the wonderful folks you know and love at Stanford. Words such as Inquisition, Galileo, Tourquemada, The Holy Office and a few more have also been associated with the Order. We were at the service of the Church and from time to time the Church has given us work which was not always popular. Much of that has passed now and we tend to be seen as theologically prepared preachers with a keen sense of pastoral need. I hope such is the case here. The only remnant of the doctrinal defense of orthodoxy on the institutional level is the position of Theologian to the Papal Palace (formerly known by the wonderful name of Master of the Sacred Palace, an office always held by a Dominican and aspired to by yours truly as a novice.) Over the years we have had a positive effect on much of church life. Even the presently glorious reigning Pope John Paul II did his doctorate at the Dominican University in Rome: The Angelicum or "Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas."

Dominicans operate colleges and universities, institutes and centers of study world-wide. We also staff schools, parishes and countless university ministries such as Stanford. There are Dominicans doing research and study, teaching and administering universities on every continent. Our most recent venture is into Russia - an area served by missionaries centuries ago. Present Dominicans walk in the steps of Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Fra Angelico, Lacordaire, Savanarola, Hyacinth, Martin De Porres, Catherine of Siena (the first woman to be proclaimed Doctor of the Church), Margaret of Costello, the Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese and Irish martyrs, Catherine De Ricci, Agnes of Montepulciano, Diana D'Andallo and Cecelia to name just a few. It should be clear at this point that I am proud of my heritage and happy to share it with you, our most recent setting for the preaching of the Good News. We will celebrate his feast day next Sunday at our 4:30 liturgy. It is not only a day of celebration for us Dominicans but for all of us who are members of our new University Parish of St. Dominic at Stanford.

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