Dominic

Life

Dominic was born around 1170 in Caleruega, in the Kingdom of Castile (present-day Spain). In Spanish he is known as Domingo de Guzmán. He studied theology at Palencia and became a canon of Osma Cathedral, that is, a cleric attached to the cathedral church who lived in community with other clergy.

Dominic accompanied Bishop Diego of Osma, who had been entrusted with arranging a royal marriage, on a journey to Denmark. While passing through southern France, he first encountered the Cathars, a group the Church of that time had condemned as heretical. He later remained in the region as an itinerant preacher. In 1206 he founded a religious house at Prouille, where women converts lived.

In 1215 Dominic was given a house in Toulouse and formed a community there with six companions. Bishop Fulk of Toulouse permitted them to preach throughout the region. That same year Dominic attended the Fourth Lateran Council with Bishop Fulk and asked Pope Innocent III to approve the order. The pope died the following year, however, and on December 22, 1216, his successor, Honorius III, approved the Order of Preachers. Some sources date the approval to January 1217. Dominic then traveled widely to expand the order until his death in Bologna on August 6, 1221.

Ministry and Achievements

• A preaching order: The order sought to combine a life of prayer and meditation within the monastery (contemplation) with preaching in the world. Scholarly study was also valued as preparation for preaching.
• Poverty and mendicancy: The friars owned no property and lived on the donations of others. Orders that live in this way are called mendicant orders. The Dominican Order, together with the Franciscan Order, is regarded as one of the principal mendicant orders.
• Rule of life: The order adopted the Rule of Augustine, which the Church had already approved, as its rule of life. The order's official Latin name is Ordo Praedicatorum, abbreviated O.P.

Influence on the Korean Church

Dominic was a figure of the medieval church before the Reformation. There is no clear evidence that he directly influenced Protestantism in Korea. Among Protestants, his name appears mainly in church-history discussions of the medieval mendicant movement. The Dominican Order he founded came to Korea in 1990 and is reported to operate priories in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and in Gangbuk District, Seoul.

Assessment

The Catholic Church venerates him as a saint, and his feast day is August 8. Because most Protestant denominations do not venerate saints, they treat him as a figure of church history. Even so, his life of poverty and his effort to spread the gospel through preaching are sometimes viewed positively across denominational lines. At the same time, his ministry began in opposition to the Cathars, whom the Church had declared heretics. Assessments of his role within the broader history of the medieval church's response to heresy therefore vary according to perspective.