Saint Dominic

August 8 – St. Dominic –

After his ordination to the priesthood, Dominic spent nine years in Osma, pursuing a life of intense prayer. Dominic and a group of followers gained local recognition as a religious congregation, and Dominic accompanied Tolouse’s bishop to Rome for an ecumenical council in 1215.

The council stressed the Church’s need for better preaching. Dominic obtained papal approval for his plan in 1216, and was named as the Pope’s chief theologian. The founder spent the last several years of his life building up the Dominican order (OP – the order of preachers) and continuing his preaching missions, during which he is said to have converted some 100,000 people. St. Dominic died in Italy on August 6, 1221. He was canonized in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX.

~Image: Statue of St. Dominic, Dominican Sisters, Mt. Thabor Monastery, Ortonville, Michigan