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    Dominicans around the world celebrate today the feast of our holy founder, St. Dominic Guzman.  More than 800 years ago, he established a group of itinerant preachers to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France.  This small group of preachers and a monastery of cloistered nuns became the foundation for today's worldwide Order of Preachers, the title given it in the official document of approval by Pope Honorius III.  Although the scriptures assigned for the Mass today are those for Saturday in the 18th week in Ordinary Time (and will vary at Dominican celebrations), I find in them two elements that characterized St. Dominic and remain part of the Dominican charism: vision and faith.

     Dominic was a Canon of St. Augustine in Osma, Spain, and went with his bishop on a diplomatic journey requested by the pope which took them through southern France where the Albigensian heresy had taken hold and divided the church.  The official preachers sent to combat this were bishops and abbots who traveled in high style, in contrast to the heretical preachers who lived austere lives and were making converts..  Dominic and his bishop, Diego, noticed the difference and conceived the idea of preachers whose lifestyle matched that of the heretics.  Dominic's bishop returned later to his diocese, leaving Dominic to continue the vision which was meant to preach the faith in an authentic way.  His vision led him to Rome to secure the approval of the pope and the Order of Preachers was born. December 22, 1216.

     Dominic's vision also led him to do something his little group thought was crazy!  He divided the group and sent some to the two biggest university cities in Europe: Paris and Bologna to preach, study and establish the Order.  Good preachers needed to be well-educated.  St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great would benefit from this visionary decision some twenty years later. And the church continues to benefit from that decision.  Another important decision, one shared by the Franciscans who were founded around the same time, was that Dominicans would not be confined to a monastery but would be itinerant and flexible to meet the needs of the faith wherever necessary.  

     The family of the Order of Preachers now includes not only the friars (like me) but cloistered nuns, apostolic sisters, and lay tertiaries, as well as associated movements that take their inspiration from St. Dominic.  It took faith and vision to establish the Order and it has taken a lot of faith and vision to keep it alive all these centuries.  Today we celebrate with joy the faithful visionary who started it all!  AMEN