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At the end of our last session, we saw that when St. Dominic arrived
in Rome in 1216 with everything all in order for papal approval of
his new foundation, he found that Pope Innocent III had died. This
meant that he would have to go all through the process of persuading
Innocent's successor that his Order would be good for the Church. As
it turned out, the man elected to succeed Innocent was Honorius III
who was even more supportive of Dominic than his predecessor had
been.The first thing Honorius did was to give a bull of approval of
the Order on December 21, 1216. On the following day, he issued a
second bull of confirmation in which are the words so dear to the
hearts of Dominicans, "We, considering that the brethren of the
Order will be the champions of the Faith and true lights of the
world" and so on. On January 26th of 1217 he issued third bull which
called the Dominicans "preachers". This was the one St. Dominic
really wanted. That title given by the Holy See was a radical one.
It meant that now priests, and not just bishops, were authorized to
preach the Word of God. This was completely new in the Church.
Dominic was eager to return to Toulouse, but the Pope held him in
Rome. He was made the theologian to the Pope, the office of Master
of the Sacred Palace, an office that has been held by a Dominican
since that time. The present one is Cardinal Chiapi. Finally, in May
he was allowed to return home. On August 13th, 1217 he summoned his
brethren to Prouille, the place where he had begun to found the
Order. There he took another radical step. On the Feast of the
Assumption, he dispersed his small band of followers, some to Spain,
others to Bologna, but the largest number to Paris, the greatest
center of learning in the west at that time. There were those who
thought this was a foolish move, but he said, "Do not oppose me, for
I know very well what I am doing." Usually, St. Dominic deferred to
the wishes of his brethren, but in this case he was insistent and he
was right. The Order grew tremendously as a result. Upon the
suggestion of the saint, the brethren chose Matthew of France to be
Abbot in case he was incapacitated. But as time would show, the
title just did not fit so Matthew was the first and last abbot in
the Dominican Order. Then Dominic set off again for Rome. He arrived
there in January of 1218. The Pope gave him the ancient church of
San Sisto Vecchio, which is right across the street from the baths
of Caracalla and down a short way from the Circus Maximus. The Pope,
however, had another project in mind involving Dominic. He wanted to
bring together all the nuns of Rome who were living in various
monasteries all over the city. Their discipline was lax and they
needed to be brought back to a stricter way of life. He saw Dominic
as the man who could persuade them to leave their various places and
take on a more rigorous rule of life. This was a big order but
somehow or another the saint was able to bring it off. As soon as
the remodeling of San Sisto was complete the nuns were to be brought
there. This meant that the Dominican Fathers and Brothers had to
have some place to move to. The Pope came through again and gave the
Friars the magnificent basilica of Santa Sabina on the Avelline Hill
overlooking the Tiber River. It had been built in the fifth century
and is certainly one of the most beautiful churches in Rome. It is
still the headquarters of the Order. Sometime after their arrival
there St. Dominic planted some lemon trees in the courtyard of the
cloister. Cuttings from those trees were planted in the courtyard of
St. Albert's Priory in Oakland and they are flourishing.
Since the dispersal of the brethren there were houses of the Order
all over Europe and the numbers would continue to grow, for
vocations came in great abundance. Many of the men entering were
distinguished scholars already. One of the most notable was Reginald
of Orleans who held the chair of canon law at the University of
Paris. He was the one to whom the Blessed Mother appeared and gave
him the white scapular that we all wear and is the most important
part of the Dominican Habit. He also was a most eloquent preacher
and attracted a great many young men into the Order. One of those
was Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who would succeed St. Dominic as
General of the Order. He would attract over a thousand novices into
the Order, among them two future popes, two canonized saints,
numerous blesseds and countless intellectual giants of the time, one
of whom was St. Albert the Great. Entering during this period were
also St. Hyacinth, who preached not only in his native Poland but in
other countries of northern Europe as well, and his brother, Blessed
Celaus, who worked in Bohemia and Silesia.The Order grew very
quickly then. St. Dominic began visiting the various houses to
insure that all these new members understood his ideals and
purposes, to encourage them in their work and inspire them to
greater apostolic zeal and regular observance. Keep in mind, he
walked every step of the way. There was no public transportation or
good roads. He would not ride a horse or a mule or even a donkey. He
walked thousands of miles, to Spain, all over France as far as Paris
and to Rome and other cities of Italy. He never stayed long
anywhere. When he got outside of town he would take off his sandals
and go barefoot even over rocky ground. He carried with him a staff
and a little bundle on his shoulder. In it, among other things, of
course, were the gospel of Matthew and the epistles of St. Paul
which he read constantly. Every where he went he preached and drew
great crowds to hear him. He always lived an austere life no matter
where he was, fasting, praying most of the night, and scourging
himself. He did have one weakness in the line of food. He loved
turnips, which most of us might consider a penance.One fact quickly
became obvious. There was an urgent need for a written rule of
Constitutions. The Friars had already chosen the Rule of St.
Augustine as the basic law of the Order and had adopted a few
regulations, but the Rule needed to be made more specific and
applied to the purpose and spirit of the Order. For this reason, a
General Chapter consisting of delegates from the various houses of
the Order was called to meet in Bologna on May 17, 1220. We do not
know the names of those who were present with the exception of
Jordan of Saxony who has left us a brief account of the chapter
proceedings. This is the only record we have of it. Jordan,
incidentally, had been in the Order only two months when he was
selected as one of the four delegates from Paris.From his account we
know that several characteristics were built into the Order's
legislation. The first was a democratic spirit that was totally
unheard of at that time. Every superior was to be elected, even the
Master of the Order, for definite terms of office. Poverty was to be
observed with the brethren living on alms. We still do it that way.
Even the work we do in the St. Jude Office and on our mission band
is a form of begging. Instead of going from door to door asking for
food and money as they did in the Middle Ages, we write letters to
people or preach asking for money to educate our students for the
priesthood. The capitular fathers also re-affirmed that preaching
was the primary work of the Order hand in hand with study, for
ignorant preachers were causing problems. Both preaching and study
were so essential that a superior could grant dispensation from
regulations of the Rule if they would interfere with either one. One
piece of legislation was that Chapters were to be held every year
alternating between Bologna and Paris. This had to be abandoned
later on when the Order grew so large that it became impractical. We
do not know how long the Chapter lasted for Jordan does not tell us.
We do know that on May 24th., a week later, St. Dominic was on the
road again travelling all over northern Italy. In May of 1221, the
second General Chapter was held once again in Bologna. We know even
less about it than the first for Jordan was not there. By this
time he was the Provincial of the Province of Lombardy in northern
Italy. We do know that the Order was divided into eight provinces
each with its own Prior Provincial. They were Spain, Provence,
France, Lombardy, Rome, Germany, Hungary and England. Further
refinements were made in the Constitutions, but we are not certain
what they were for the records of it have not come down to us. In
June, Dominic was in Venice, conferring with Cardinal Ugolino, his
close friend, the one who as Pope Gregory X was to canonize Dominic.
In July, the saint returned to Bologna feeling tired in body but
tireless in spirit. It was a unusually hot summer and on top of it,
he had a fever. It was decided to move him to higher ground in the
hills above Bologna where it was cooler. He talked about his life's
work to the brethren present. He made a public confession to them
and admitted that although he had preserved chastity all of his life
he had taken more pleasure in conversing with younger women than
with older ones. He then made his last will and testament: "These
are, beloved ones, the inheritances I leave you as my sons: have
charity among you, hold to humility, possess voluntary poverty." It
was now obvious that the end was near. He requested to be taken back
to Bologna to die among his brothers. They had to carry him back
very slowly for it seemed as though he would die on the way. They
finally made it, his body burning with fever. He told the friars
around his bed not to weep for him for, in his words, he was going
to where he could serve them better. They wanted to begin the
prayers of the dying, but he told to wait. A little later on,
he said "Begin." At the words "Come to his help, you holy ones of
God; come out to meet him, you angels of the Lord, taking his soul,
and offering it in the sight of the Most High." He repeated the
words, opened his eyes, sighed and died at six o'clock on Friday
evening, August 6, 1221. He was only fifty -one years old.
In five short years, from 1216 to 1221, St.Dominic had accomplished
the almost incredible. He had founded a religious Order with just
six followers at the beginning. When he died they were in the
thousands. It was a totally new form of religious life made up of
highly educated men whose mission was to preach the Good News of
salvation. Yet he intended that they should follow what we call the
monastic observances --- Divine Office said in choir, silence and
penance. Oh yes, he met with opposition. Those who consider
themselves conservatives who never like anything new and they were
the ones who attacked the whole idea of a world-wide Order under one
head who were itinerant preachers, but learned men who roamed all
over Europe helping the bishops to fulfill their office of
preaching. One critic complained that "they have the world for their
cell, and the ocean for their cloister." Dominicans gleefully seized
upon this statement as an apt description of their way of life.
We may well ask: how faithful are present day Dominicans to this
ideal? In the opinion, of most, very well. We are certainly faithful
to our office of preaching. The Order has produced some of the
greatest preachers in the history of the Church. Names that come to
mind are Savonarola, Lacordaire, Tom Burke and Ignatius Smith, whom
Life Magazine selected as the only great Catholic preacher in
American history. In our own Province there have been men like
Reggie Lewis and Stan Parmisano. We have had a mission band for as
long as I know about, one that is still active and doing great work
in the Western States and Canada. They are itinerant preachers and
it is a hard life but those called to it love it. Over the years
many people say that the quality of preaching in Dominican churches
is higher than in other churches. That is something we should be
proud of. As far as learned men are concerned, all of us have a
thorough theological education and we have produced many outstanding
theologicans, men like St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Albert the Great,
Cardinal Cajetan and John of St. Thomas. But they are not just in
the past. Many of the top theologians of today are Dominicans, men
like Chenu, Congar and Schillibex. In our own Province, the
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley is probably
the most distinguished faculty in the country. St. Dominic, as you
recall sent his men out to universities. We are still doing that.
Our province has more student centers or Newman clubs than any other
province in the Order. It is something to be proud of. We still
celebrate Office in choir every day. Our living conditions are not
luxurious. In fact, I think most people would consider them
unacceptable. Community life is a reality. We love to be together
and find our strength and spirit coming from the community of our
brothers. We are still a democratic Order and we have proof of that
as we elect a new Provincial every four years. St. Dominic would be
happy with his sons of this day and age, seven hundred and fifty
years later. Let us close with this tribute by the poet Dante in his
Paradiso:
With Apostolic sanction guaranteed,
Equipped with doctrine and zeal as well,
Like some high torrent thundering down at speed
On briars and brakes of heresy he fell
Uprooting them, and still was swift to go
Where opposition was most formidable.
From him, unnumbered rillets took their flow
To irrigate the Catholic garden-plot
Thenceforth, whence all its bushes greener grow.
(Canto VII, nn. 97-105, Translation
of Dorothy L. Sayers)
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