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Fra Angelico, St. Dominic Italian, 1447-1448 Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria |
Biography
Dominic, or Domingo de Guzman y Aza, was born in northern Spain around the year 1170. His family appears to have belonged to the minor nobility of Castille. As a child and young adult he studied at the University of Palencia, the first university established in Spain (later absorbed by the nearby University of Salamanca). In his early life, while still a student, he became a canon of the cathedral of Osma and was ordained for that service, in which he assisted his bishop in reforming the cathedral chapter into a congregation of Augustinian canons.![]() |
Bartolo di Fredi, St. Dominic Italian, 1397 Chambery, Musee des Beaux-Arts |
The Albigensians (the name comes from the town of Albi in southern France) were essentially Manicheans, holding “a dualistic conception of reality, that is, with two equally powerful creator principles, Good and Evil. This group consequently despised matter as coming from the principle of evil. They even refused marriage, and went to the point of denying the Incarnation of Christ and the sacraments in which the Lord "touches" us through matter, and the resurrection of bodies.”1
Some of the success which this view of reality had achieved came about because the people of the region were not well instructed in the faith. Preaching and instruction were virtually non-existent in the region and the lives of the clergy were often not models of good Christian life. Itinerant preachers with austere lives were hallmarks of the Albigensians. Dominic saw that what was needed was a Catholic response which provided excellent preaching from men whose lives were as austere as those of the Albigensians. This was the mission that he now took on.
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Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St. Dominic Italian, 1515 London, National Gallery |
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El Greco, St. Dominic in Prayer Greek, 1586-1590 Private Collection |
Higher education was an important goal for them, as they needed the knowledge and skills learned in universities to perform their preaching function. To this end Dominicans were associated early on with the first universities, especially with the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. From this focus on education quickly came two great Dominican saints, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
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Giuseppe Maria Mazza, Death of St. Dominic Italian, 1715-1735 Venice, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo |
After many years of hard, but successful, work Dominic died in 1221 at the age of 51.
He was canonized thirteen years later, in 1234. His feast day is October 8th.
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Pierre le Gros the Younger, St. Dominic French, 1706 Vatican, Basilica of St. Peter |
Earliest Images
The earliest images of St. Dominic appear just after the middle of the 13th century, just a few decades after his death. They appear in a manuscript prayer manual intended for the formation of Dominican novices, calledDe modo orandi.
Unknown, St. Dominic in Prayer from De modo orandi, 13th Century Spanish copy, 15th Century Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana MS Lat. Rossianus 3 |
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Claudio Coello, St. Dominic Spanish, 1685 Madrid, Museo del Prado |
Later Image Types
Images of St. Dominic generally appear in several different types.
There is the iconic image of St. Dominic with his traditional attributes of lily, book and, often, a dog with a burning torch in its mouth. The latter is a reference to the sometimes nickname of the Dominican order, which is a wordplay on the order’s popular name in Latin (Dominicanes). By splitting the word into two other Latin words, Domini canes, you get – the dogs of the Lord. “This was itself based on a dream which St Dominic's mother, Blessed Juana de Aza, had in 1170 when she was pregnant: she saw a black and white dog with a torch in its mouth setting the world ablaze. This was interpreted to refer to St Dominic and his spiritual children, the Dominican Order - in their black and white habits - whose preaching brings the light of Gospel truth to shine upon and inflame the world with divine love.”3
At times Dominic is alone, sometimes he appears in the company of other saints in a “sacra conversazione”.
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Simone Martini, Orvieto Polyptych Italian, 1321 Orvieto, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
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Giovanni Bellini, Sts. Dominic and Sebastian Wing of San Giobbe Altarpiece Italian, ca. 1487 Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia |
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Francesco Maffei, Madonna and Child with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Alexandria Italian, 1650 Private Collection |
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Unknown, Scenes from the Life of St. Dominic from Hours of Louis of Savoy French (Savoy), 1445-1460 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Latin 9473, fol. 173v |
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Leandro Bassano, Honorius III Approving the Rule of St. Dominic in 1216 Italian, 1600-1622 Venice, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo |
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Miracle of the Book from Book of Prayers Flemish (Brussels), 1276-1296 London, British Library MS Harley 2449, fol. 160r |
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Jacques de Besancon, Miracle of the Book from Legenda Aurea by Jacopo de Voragine French (Paris), 1480-1490 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 245, fol. 23 |
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Dominco Ghirlandaio Miracle of the Book Italian, 1486-1490 Florence, S. Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel |
And there are
- two raisings from the dead,
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Benozzo Gozzoli, St. Dominic Raises a Child Italian, 1461 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
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Lorenzo Lotto, St. Dominic Raises Napoleone Orsini Italian, 1513-1516 Bergamo, Accademia Carrara |
- a miraculous feeding of his friars by angels,
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Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, St. Dominic and His Friars Fed by Angels Italian, 1536 Florence, Convent of San Marco |
An apparition by the Blessed Virgin during which she presented him with the rosary, a prayer discipline that he helped to popularize.
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Lorenzo Lotto, Madonna of the Rosary Italian, ca. 1539 Cinoli, Church of San Nicolo |
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Caravaggio, Madonna of the Rosary Italian, ca. 1607 Vienna, Kunsthistorische Museum |
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Bernardo Cavallino, Vision of St. Dominic Italian, ca. 1640-1645 Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada |
Images by Fra Angelico
Among the most affecting images of Dominic appear in the paintings by Fra Angelico in the cells of the friars at San Marco in Florence. In many of these paintings the saint appears as a prayerful observer of the event depicted.
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Fra Angelico, Crucifixion with St. Dominic Italian, 1442 Florence, Convent of San Marco, Cell 17 |
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Fra Angelico, Entombment of Christ Italian, 1442 Florence, Convent of San Marco, Cell 2 |
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Fra Angelico, The Mocking of Christ Italian, 1442 Florence, Convent of San Marco, Cell 7 |
The same motif appears in the work of other painters as well.
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Rogier van der Weyden, Lamentation with Sts. Jerome and Dominic and Donor Flemish, ca. 1464 London, National Gallery |
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Hans Memling, Madonna and Child with Sts. James and Dominic Flemish, 1488-1490 Paris, Musee du Louvre |
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Mario Vasaiti, Christ Praying in the Garden with Sts. Francis and Dominic Italian, 1510-1516 Venice, Accademia |
There are also images of St. Dominic as a powerful patron of others.
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Albrecht Durer, Feast of the Rose Garlands German, 1506 Prague, National Gallery |
And there are many images, appearing rather later in time, of the reception of St. Dominic in heaven.
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Guido Reni, St. Dominic in Glory Italian, 1613 Bologna, Church of San Domenico |
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Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, St. Dominic in Glory Italian, 1727 Venice, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo |
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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Apotheosis of St. Dominic Italian, 1737-1739 Venice, Santa Maria del Rosario |
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Andrea della Robbia, Meeting of Sts. Dominic and Francis Italian, 1493-1495 Florence, Convent of San Marco |
_________________________________________
1. Pope Benedict XVI, Catechesis on St. Dominic, February 3, 2010. Translation at : http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16ChrstChrch105.htm
2. Hood, William, "Saint Dominic's Manners of Praying: Gestures in Fra Angelico's Cell Frescoes at S. Marco", Art Bulletin, Volume LXVIII, Number 2, June 1986, pp. 195-206.
3. From Godzdogz, the blog of the English student Domincians at http://godzdogz.op.org/2006/11/what-is-godzdogz.html
4. The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints, Volume 4, p. 82. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931.) at http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GL-vol4-dominic.asp
© M. Duffy, 2012
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