Donald J. Goergen OP - St. Dominic; The Story of a Preaching Friar

Behold, my children, the heritage I leave you:
have Charity for one another,
guard Humility,
make your treasure out of voluntary Poverty.

St. Dominics Last Will and Testament

ST. DOMINIC

The Story of a Preaching Friar

Donald J. Goergen, OP

Foreword by Timothy Radcliffe, OP

PAULIST PRESS

New York / Mahwah, NJ

Except where otherwise indicated, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition Copyright 1989 and 1993, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Sculpture of St. Dominic at St. Dominic Priory, St. Louis, Missouri, by Vicki Reid. Photograph used with permission of the photographer, Br. Samuel Hakeem, OP. All rights reserved.

Cover image: St. Dominic reading a book. Detail from the Mocking of Christ (fresco, ca. 144045 by Fra Angelico [13871455], Museo di S. Marco, Florence, Italy). Reproduced by permission of Scala / Art Resource, NY.

Cover and book design by Sharyn Banks

Copyright 2016 by Rev. Donald J. Goergen, OP

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Goergen, Donald.

Title: St. Dominic : the story of a preaching friar / Donald J. Goergen, OP ;

foreword by Timothy Radcliffe, OP.

Description: New York : Paulist Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical

references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015035270 (print) | LCCN 2015039682 (ebook) | ISBN 9780809149544 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781587685538 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Dominic, Saint, 1170-1221. | SaintsSpainBiography.

Classification: LCC BX4700.D7 G64 2016 (print) | LCC BX4700.D7 (ebook) | DDC

271/.202dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015035270

ISBN 978-0-8091-4954-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-58768-553-8 (e-book)

Produced by Paulist Press

997 Macarthur Boulevard

Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

www.paulistpress.com

Printed and bound in the

United States of America

Contents

This year we celebrate the eight hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Order of Preachers. And what better moment for a splendid new life of its founder, St. Dominic! But why are there not more lives of St. Dominic? St. Francis, his contemporary, is the subject of endless biographies. Why does Dominic receive less attention?

St. Francis wished to imitate the life of Christ, and so it is right that we look closely at him and the ways in which he was Christlike. He bore the stigmata of Christs wounds in his body. St. Dominic was a preacher, and so he calls us to attend to the gospel rather than to himself. Preachers are like St. John the Baptist, who said, He must increase but I must decrease (John 3:30). The preacher must get out of the way. So it is entirely appropriate that the founder of the Order of Preachers is not the subject of endless attention. We honor him by studying the Word of the Lord. Dominic always carried with him the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of Paul, which must have weighed a lot before the invention of printing. He invites us to look at them, too.

Why, then, write a biography of Dominic? The fact that he did not draw attention to himself does not mean that he was a pale, insubstantial person, a characterless messenger. One can only be a preacher of the one who brings us abundant life if one is alive, humanly, emotionally, and spiritually. Someone who is utterly characterless could hardly point to the Lord of life. St. Dominic clearly was an attractive person of whom his brethren were very fond. Blessed Jordan of Saxony, his successor as Master of the Order, wrote that because he loved everyone, he was loved by everyone. He enjoyed the company of women and, on his deathbed, confessed that he enjoyed talking with young women more than being talked at by old women! Surely he laughed when he said this!

These early brethren were obviously warm and humane people. Jordan writes of his friendship for Henry, Prior of Cologne: My dearest friend in Christ. I loved him more than anyone else in the world. He really was a vessel of honor and grace. I do not remember ever seeing any more gracious creature in this life. Jordan wrote some of the most beautiful and tender letters of the Middle Ages to his beloved Blessed Diana dAndal. There was no fear of particular friendships.

St. Dominic was an ascetic who enjoyed his wine. It is no coincidence that his mission began in an inn! The dominant metaphor for the gospel in the first centuries of the Order was the new wine. He pointed to the Lord in part by being the humane person God called him to be, by being the unique word that God has spoken in and through his being. It is preachers who are not easy in their skin, uncomfortable in their humanity, who drag our attention toward themselves and distract us from the gospel.

Another reason why there have not been many biographies of St. Dominic is because he never wanted to be seen as the great Founder, but as one of the brethren. Much of our information about his life comes from an early book called, appropriately, Vitae Fratrum, The lives of the brethren. The preaching of the gospel is rooted in our fraternal life. Dominican brethren are formed to speak the Word of God by the discipline of living with, loving, and forgiving one another. How can one speak of the God who is love if one cannot love the person in the room next door?

It is always tempting for the preacher to want to become a star. One of the early brethren who had a tremendous success as a preacher was irritated that when he had his hair cut, the brethren did not rush forward to collect the clippings! Dominic wanted the brethren to be sent to preach two by two, pointing beyond themselves to the Lord.

It is appropriate that the foundation of the Order of Preachers was not the project of a single man, imposed on his followers. St. Dominic first discovered his mission when he was the companion of his bishop, Diego. Who knows whether it was Dominic or Diego who first had the idea of a band of preachers? Maybe it emerged from their conversations on the road. I learned from this biography that the choice of the Rule of St. Augustine was probably made by the brethren, rather than just by Dominic. Also it is argued convincingly that it was Pope Innocent III who may have had the idea of an Order of Preachers with a universal mission, rather than a little local community based in the south of France. So the Order was born of multiple conversations. Dominic was the focal point of conversations with the pope, with Diego his bishop, with the nuns at Prouilhe, and with the early brethren. He listened attentively to other peoples ideas. His genius was to be the midwife of a new way of religious life by being open to the ideas and intuitions of others.

The preacher is, in the first place, someone who listens: to God, to the scriptures, to the Church, to the brethren and sisters, and to anyone who has a word they need to speak. We have nothing to say until we have listened. If we do not listen, then we shall impose our agenda on people rather than wisdom of the Lord.