Dominican History

"Con Que Derecho?" - Dominicans & Human Rights

2012-01-10T10:56:00.001-05:00

Dominicans have a great tradition of working for human rights. Recently some of our friars presented at a conference at George Mason University to commemorate the 500th anniversary (4th Sunday of Advent 2011) of the historic homily of Fr. Antonio Montesinos outside the cathedral in Santo Domingo. His famous first words of that homily are engraved at the base of the statue, "Con que derecho?" (With what right?) This preaching converted Bartolomeo de las Casas, who would later convert and enter the Order of Preachers, thus becoming a great preacher who worked for justice and an end to the slave trade of the New World.

this powerful statue of Fr. Antonio Montesinos OP

overlooks the harbor in Santo Domingo

Dominican Vocation: Br. Raymund, OP

2011-11-02T18:46:00.003-04:00

Br. Raymund Snyder, O.P. gives his story on meeting the Dominican friars, relating it to the Rich Young Man's Encounter with Christ.

Relaunching the Dominicana

2011-09-22T10:53:00.001-04:00

The Dominican students brothers of the Province of St. Joseph have relaunched Dominicana, a semi-annual print journal that is an avenue for the brothers to carry out the Dominican charism of: contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere – to contemplate and to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation.

The relaunching of the Dominicana this past spring marks the first time that this journal has been published since 1968, after a run of 52 years. When the brothers originally launched the journal, it coincided with the 700th Anniversary of the Dominican Order. Here's what the brothers wrote then:

Almost 100 years later, the Dominican students decided to return to this effective mode of preaching by not only restarting the print journal, but also by introducing a new daily blog, where different brothers make a daily contribution to the task of evangelization in our own contemporary era. The Dominicana blog is overseen by one of the priests at the Dominican House of Studies, and it presents "short articles on matters of timely and timeless relevance, from science to Scripture, literature to liturgy, politics to prayer, or anything in between."

In the words of one brother, "It's an exciting time to be a Dominican."

DHS Community 1916 (81 friars)

DHS Studentate 2011 (50 students, total community of 83)

Outline of Lectures in Dominican History (pdf)

2011-07-29T15:39:00.001-04:00

The 175-page outline to these Lectures in Dominican History by Fr. J.F. Hinnebusch, O.P., meant to accompany the audio recordings which are available on this blog and on iTunes, can now be downloaded as pdf files (in four sections) from google docs at the following links:

Part 1a

Part 1b

Part 2

Part 3

The Dominican Order in the 17th-19th Centuries

2011-07-29T10:26:00.005-04:00

"The 17^th and 18^th c. were an age of mysticism* (among French Dominicans) and of prospering missions all the way to China* and the Philippines,* as well as the West Indies (presented in John Baptist Labat’s remarkable narratives). The French Revolution was a blow for the Dominican order in France and beyond; while the Spanish provinces partially and temporarily disassociated themselves from the authorities of the order.

The 19^th c. was a time of reconstruction, led by Edward Dominic Fenwick in the USA (from 1804) and Lacordaire* in France (c. 1840). One of Lacordaire’s first companions, Vincent Jandel, became master general of the order. Congregations of sisters proliferated everywhere, with specialized apostolates in schools and hospitals. Cloistered monasteries were restored and new lay organizations organized."

An excerpt from the entry "Dominican Order" by Guy-Thomas Bedouelle, O.P., in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (2010). Fr. Bedouelle is the author of several entries in this dictionary: Devotio Moderna; Dominic, St; Dominican Order; Elisabeth of Hungary; Lefèvre d'Étaples.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 11

2011-07-28T17:25:00.000-04:00

Lecture 11 continues the treatment of the life of St. Dominic, with a focus on the religious situation in southern France, the Cathars, the Albigensian heresy, the Catholic reform, Cistercian preaching missions in southern France, St. Dominic's inspiration to found an order of preachers, his involvement with the episcopal inquisition, the various medieval inquisitions, and the Albigensian crusade.

Lectures in Dominican history given in 1986 to Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph by Fr. John Frederick Hinnebusch, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. Lecture 11 of 25. Audio, 62 min.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

The Nun Smitten in the Thigh

2011-07-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

From the Golden Legend: There was a nun named Mary which was sick at Tripolin, in the monastery of Mary Magdalene, and was smitten in the thigh so grievously that five months during they doubted that she would have died, and then she bethought her and prayed thus in herself: Lord God, I am not worthy to pray to thee ne to be heard of thee, but I pray my lord, St. Dominic, that he be mediator between thee and me, that he may get to me the benefit of health.

And when she had long prayed in tears she slept, and saw St. Dominic with two friars, that opened the curtain that hung afore her bed, and entered and said to her: Wherefore desirest thou so sore to be healed?

And she said: Sir, that I might more devoutly serve God.

And then he drew out his ointment, which was of sweet odour, from under his cope and anointed her thigh, and she was anon all whole and said: This ointment is much precious, sweet and light.

And when she demanded how it was made, he said to her: This ointment is the ointment of love, and is so precious that it may not be bought for no price. For in the gifts of God is none better than love, for there is nothing more precious than charity, but it is soon lost if it be not well kept.

Then he appeared to her sister that night, that slept in the dortour, saying, “I have healed thy sister,” which anon arose and ran thither and found her whole. And when she felt her anointed with sensible unction she wiped it with great reverence with a bundle of silk.

And when she had told all this to the abbess, to her sister, and to her confessor, and had showed the unction and bundle, they were smitten with the novelty of the savour, so sweet-smelling that it might not be compared to none other aromatic, and they kept that unction with great reverence.

How agreeable the place is unto God where the body of St. Dominic resteth, howbeit that many miracles be showed there. Yet one shall I say to you here and that shall suffice.

The Golden Legend or Lives Of The Saints

Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275

Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483

From the Temple Classics Edited by F.S. Ellis

Fr. Kurt Pritzl on Fortitude

2011-07-25T16:43:00.004-04:00

Fortitude is a virtue because and when it is linked with prudence and justice, and it is a virtue for us Christians when it is linked with God’s prudence and God’s justice. When we know the right, noble, and loving thing to do (prudence) and we are able to overcome our innate drive just to care about ourselves rather than to be balanced, fair and just (justice), then our perseverance and endurance in acting for the good, despite difficulties, and our patience in the face of obstacles, opposition, and setbacks constitute genuine fortitude.

When we realize the link, tie, bond of courage to what is right and just, growing in courage becomes easier—we are willing to act more and more courageously, to hang in there more often in the face of difficulties and resist the inevitable tendency to despondency about the struggles we face, precisely because the effort is on behalf of what is good and right. We are not just suffering or struggling for no reason or for their own sakes, as if that would make us better persons or make our world a better place. We are actually making ourselves and our world a better place, by persisting in the right and good and loving, despite the difficulties. Towards the end of today’s gospel, Jesus talks about the harvest being ready and that some sow and others reap. What we do in our lives as Christians over time, whether we actually see the results or not right away, is to help with the harvest of salvation.

An excerpt from a homily on the virtue of fortitude, part of a series on the Cardinal Virtues given at St. Peter's Church on Capitol Hill, 2005. The full text is available from the School of Philosophy site at The Catholic University of America.

Father Kurt J. Pritzl, O.P., was awarded CUA's Fortitude medal by President Garvey posthumously in April of 2011. The Prior of the Dominican House of Studies, Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P., received the medal in Fr. Pritzl's honor.

Fr. Marcel Dubois, O.P. (1920-2007)

2011-07-24T17:07:00.001-04:00

Father Marcel Dubois, Dominican, was a philosopher, theologian, teacher, spiritual director and custodian of souls.

Born in France in 1920, he entered the Dominicans as a young man and was rigorously trained as a professor of Thomism, Having arrived in Israel in 1962 in order to join Isaiah House, a community of Dominicans engaged in discovering the reality of the Jewish people, Dubois was soon engaged to teach Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas at the Hebrew University. For many Israeli Jewish students, he was the first Catholic priest they ever encountered and his attentive and loving engagement with his students broke many of the stereotypes that these Israelis had inherited from the Jewish generation of the Holocaust that preceded them. Hundreds flocked to his classes that generally included some introduction to Christianity, offered in his characteristic strongly French accented Hebrew. In a country where Christians make up about two percent of the population, Father Marcel gave a face to the post-Vatican II Church, a Church engaged in serious, respectful and loving dialogue with the Jewish people. Later, serving as head of the philosophy department, he eventually was naturalized as an Israeli citizen and became a well-known public figure, receiving recognition from Israeli academic and civil authorities and winning prestigious awards, including, in 1996, the State President’s Israel Prize for his contribution to Israeli society. Increasingly popular among Jerusalem intellectuals were his regular public conversations with prominent Jewish Orthodox philosopher, Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitz (1903-1994), a strong critic of Christianity.

Father Marcel had already met Jewish Catholics in Paris and so it was only natural that he became involved in the life of kehilla, whose Jerusalem home was Isaiah House where he lived and later served as superior. He is vividly remembered for his preaching, conferences and essays as well as his loving attention to many individuals in the community. Within the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, Father Marcel was a noted theoretician, theologian and activist in the growing dialogue with the Jewish people. His writings and conferences, mostly in French, became influential among the post-Vatican II generation of theologians who were working out the new relationship between the Church and the Jewish people. Father Marcel always attracted a steady flow of visitors seeking the guidance of the man who had found a place in the society and hearts of the Jewish people in Israel.

In his later years, especially after the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation at the end of eighties, Father Marcel began to distance himself from a blanket support for the State of Israel, remaining, however, true to his love for the Jewish people. In these years he was also no longer involved in the kehilla but some still remained deeply attached to him.

After his death on June 15, 2007, the influential Hebrew language Israeli daily newspaper, HaAretz, called Dubois “one of the enchanted human stones of Jerusalem” (18.6.2007). Passionate lover of Jerusalem and all its inhabitants, Father Marcel will remain a witness to the Church’s untiring work for reconciliation, dialogue and search for justice and peace. Many Israelis now repeat after his name: “Zikhrono livrakha - May his memory be blessed”.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 10

2011-07-24T15:17:00.003-04:00

Continuing the discussion begun in Lecture 9 on Dominican monastic practices and the ways in which a life of contemplation and silence shapes Dominican teaching and preaching, Fr. Hinnebusch concludes his treatment of the Dominican religious life, its ideals, its liturgical life, study, and preaching. He then begins his treatment of the life of St. Dominic, with a focus on the founder's theological studies in Palencia and in Osma, his argument with the innkeeper, and his desire to preach the Gospel in the "Danish marches."

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 9

2011-07-23T10:43:00.003-04:00

In Lecture 9 Father Hinnebusch compares and contrasts the organization of apostolic religious orders and societies, focusing on the distinguishing characteristics of the Society of Jesus and the Order of Preachers, the unity of the Dominican Order, the place of study in Dominican life, Dominican contemplation, and the role of monastic observances in the life of the friar preacher.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Saint Mary Magdalene, Protectress of the Order

2011-07-22T10:59:00.005-04:00

From the Golden Legend (Blessed Jacob of Voragine, O.P.)

"And all who heard her were in admiration at her beauty, her eloquence, and the sweetness of her message...and no wonder, that the mouth which had pressed such pious and beautiful kisses on the Savior's feet should breathe forth the perfume of the word of God more profusely than others could." (Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, Readings on the Saints, William Granger Ryan translator, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, 1:376-77).

The Signadou first appeared to St. Dominic on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, July 22, 1206.

1297 - The General Chapter in Venice declared Mary of Magdala Protectress of the Order.

St. Catherine of Siena extols the humility and penance of Saint Mary Magdalene. In a vision the Blessed Mother gave St. Catherine Mary Magdalene as a second mother.

In a 16th century source St. Dominic is said to have appeared with Mary Magdalene to Charles II.

Servant of God Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P. (1832-1869) venerated a relic of St. Mary Magdalene as a novice, and realized that the greatest sinners could become the greatest saints. He founded Bethany House at Cadillac prison.

Lacordaire’s Life of Mary Magdalene treats of the themes of spiritual friendship; Mary, Martha, Lazarus as friends of the Lord; the tears of conversion and penance; tears capable of ransoming a life.

Important relics of St. Mary Magdalene are venerated at the Dominican shrine of la Sainte Baume in France.

In this first of a series of videos Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. explains why Mary Magdalene was chosen as a patroness of the Dominican Order.

Blessed Ceslaus of Poland (1180-1242)

2011-07-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

Blessed Ceslaus, historical reconstruction based on the relic of his skull

Legend has it that through the prayers of Blessed Ceslaus (bł. Czesława) a luminous sphere appeared in the sky in 1241 that chased the Tartar army from the capital of Lower Silesia. Blessed Ceslaus met Saint Dominic and entered the Dominican Order in 1221, along with Saint Hyacinth. He established the first Dominican priory in Wroclaw (Breslau). The Dominicans there celebrated his feast a few days ago.

From the BBKL:

CESLAUS: Sel. Dominikaner, * um 1180 in Polen, † 15.7. 1242 in Breslau, Fest: 20.7. (Erzbistum Breslau), 4.7. (Dominikanerorden). - C., mit dem Familiennamen Odrowaz, wurde von seinem Onkel, dem Erzbischof Ivo von Krakau, zum Studium der Theologie und der Rechtswissenschaften nach Italien gesandt. Nach seiner Rückkehr wurde er von Erzbischof Ivo zum Kanoniker und Kustos an der Marienkirche in Sandomir gemacht. Als eines Tages Ivo nach Rom reiste, nahm er C. mit. In Rom hörte C. vom Dominikanerorden und bat um Eintritt in diesen. Der hl. Dominikus selbst überreichte ihm das Ordenskleid. Nach seinem Noviziat bat er, zu den Heiden gehen zu dürfen, was ihm auch gewährt wurde. C. reiste zunächst nach Prag, dann nach Schlesien, das er förmlich durchwanderte, um überall das Evangelium zu verkünden. Als sicher gilt nach Meinolf Lohrum, daß er um 1226 den Konvent von St. Adalbert zu Breslau gründete. Er war auch dessen erster Prior. Als die Tataren in Polen und Schlesien einfielen, mußte er mit den anderen Christen nach Breslau fliehen. - Lohrum weist auch darauf hin, daß C. mit der hl. Hedwig von Schlesien zusammengearbeitet habe. Auch schreiben die Menschen von Breslau die Befreiung ihrer Stadt von den Tartaren im Jahre 1241 dem C. zu. Papst Clemens XI. bestätigte am 27. Augut 1712 seine Verehrung. Seit 1724 befinden sich seine Reliquien in der Ceslaus-Kapelle der Adalbert Kirche in Breslau. Diese Kapelle blieb im Zweiten Weltkrieg wie durch ein Wunder vor der Zerstörung bewahrt. - In den Darstellungen gilt als sein besonderes Attribut brennende Kugeln. 1963 wurde er zum Patron Breslaus erhoben. Er erhielt die Namen: »Apostel Schlesiens« und »Retter der Breslauer Burg«.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 8

2011-07-21T20:07:00.003-04:00

In Lecture 8 Fr. Hinnebusch describes the fundamental characteristics of the life and ministry of the friar preacher, indicating the ways in which the life of a Dominican priest differs from that of clerics regular, canons, monks, hermit friars, etc. Included are discussions of the apostolic life, religious poverty, monastic stability, monastic elements of Dominican life, the possession of churches, the ownership of property with revenues, fixed incomes, etc. Fr. Hinnebusch then describes the life of the Dominican friars as contrasted with the lives of the Franciscan or Augustinian friars.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Dominicos y Franciscanos

2011-07-20T22:45:00.005-04:00

Dos ordenes para evangelizar.

Bl. Jordan of Saxony on Preaching to Frenchmen

2011-07-18T20:39:00.004-04:00

When he was beyond the seas, before he had quite mastered the French language some Knights Templars from France asked him to give them a sermon, and this is the simple way in which he got over the difficulty. Wishing them to understand from the very outset that he knew but little French, and trusting, by means of an occasional word in that tongue, they might gather the meaning of along sentence. in German, he stood with his back to a wall of about his own height, and began–"Brethren, supposing an ass were standing on the other side of this wall, and were simply to raise his head high enough for you to see one of his big ears, we should all conclude rightly that a whole ass was there, for so we would take in the whole by means of a part. And so, too, it often comes to pass that a whole phrase is gathered from one short word slipped into the middle of a long German sentence."

When on his way home to his convent with a fresh batch of novices, as they were all saying compline together, one of them fell to laughing, and the rest catching on joined in right heartily. Upon this one of the blessed Master's companions made a sign for them to be quiet, which only set them off laughing more than ever. When the blessing had been given at the end of compline, the Master turning to this friar rebuked him sharply: 'Brother, who made you their master? What right have you to take them to task?' Then addressing the novices very gently, he said, 'Laugh to your hearts' content, my dearest children, and don't stop on that man's account. You have my full leave, and it is only right that you should laugh after breaking from the devil's thraldom, and bursting the shackles in which he held you fast these many years past. Laugh on, then, and be as merry as you please, my darling sons.' They were all much relieved on hearing him say so, and never again indulged in a hearty laugh without a good reason.

The Legend of Blessed Jordan of Saxony from
The Lives of the Brethren, by Fratris Gerardi de Fracheto OP
Chapter 31 HIS PRUDENT AND WITTY REPLIES

Lectures in Dominican History Part 7

2011-07-17T11:22:00.003-04:00

In Lecture 7 Fr. John Hinnebusch, O.P., discusses Dominican theological education, the place of the intellectual life in the early Dominican Order, city life in the 13th century, aspects of Dominican organizational structures, heresies of the 12-13th centuries, the roots of Protestantism, resistance to the teaching of the friars at the medieval universities, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Saint Dominic (Florentine, 14th cent.)

2011-07-16T13:36:00.000-04:00

Florentinischer Maler (tätig Mitte 14. Jahrhundert)

Heiliger Dominikus. Um 1355–1365

Lindenau-Museum Altenburg

Inv.-Nr. 85

Raymond-Léopold Bruckberger, O.P. (1907-1998)

2011-07-14T14:15:00.007-04:00

Raymond-Léopold Bruckberger (Murat, 10 April 1907 – Fribourg, 4 January 1998), was a French Dominican priest, Résistance member, writer, translator, screenwriter and director of Austrian heritage.

He was elected member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1985. (from Wikipedia).

Raymond Léopold Bruckberger, o.p. "Le Monde renversé"

Le Fond et la forme - 15/07/1971 - 08min29s

A l'occasion de la parution de son livre "Le Monde renversé" André BOURIN interroge le père Raymond Léopold BRUCKBERGER sur les changements qui ont agité l'église depuis 20 ans. Par ailleurs, le père dominicain évoque les dangers marxiste et léniniste qui cernent la société et annonce à sa manière l'éventualité d'une guerre religieuse.

A later interview with Fr Bruckberger is online here. It is described this way: Le Révérend Père Raymond BRUCKBERGER vient d'écrire le dernier tome de ses mémoires "A l'heure où les ombres s'allongent ", où il parle de l'amour délirant qu'il a éprouvé pour une femme. Il explique qu'il a aimé cette femme, et qu'il a traversé une période de délire sexuel sans jamais renier la loi de l'Eglise : il a voulu "se nettoyer lui-même" en racontant cet épisode de sa vie, et qu'il restera dominicain jusqu'à la fin de sa vie. Il discute avec Pierre Boujut et Ella Maillart de la morale de l'Evangile et de la prédestination.

A notice about Fr. Bruckberger from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politique.

Father Raymond L. Bruckberger, O.P. standing in the ruins of the Acropolis.

NYTimes Obituary:

Raymond-Leopold Bruckberger, Priest and Author, Dies at 90

By ERIC PACE

Published: January 12, 1998

The New York Times

The Rev. Raymond-Leopold Bruckberger, a member of the Roman Catholic Dominican Order who became chaplain general of the French Resistance in World War II and a best-selling author in the United States, died Jan. 4 in a retirement home near Fribourg, Switzerland. He was 90.

Father Bruckberger was a prolific, outspoken, worldly man of letters who reaped both honors and criticism and became a chevalier of the Legion of Honor and a member of the French Academy.

But as the newspaper Le Figaro put it last week, ''He had numerous differences'' with his superiors in the church ''before revealing a loving liaison'' with an American woman. As a writer, Le Monde said, he came to play ''the role of professional despiser'' long and vehemently.

Yet his finest hour was gloriously positive: as chaplain general, he welcomed de Gaulle when he came to worship at Notre Dame cathedral in 1944 after Paris was liberated. But when mysterious shots were fired outside and even inside the cathedral, from its eaves, causing panic among onlookers, de Gaulle had the service cut short.

Father Bruckberger was born in Murat in south-central France, studied at the University of Montpellier and elsewhere in France and entered the Dominican order in 1929; he was ordained a priest in 1934.

He joined the Resistance in 1942 and was arrested by the Gestapo. Earlier in the war he served with the French mountain light infantry and commandos.

From 1950 to 1958 he lived in the United States and gathered material for a book, ''Image of America,'' whose American edition came out in 1959 and became a best-seller. In a front-page review in The New York Times Book Review, the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called Father Bruckberger ''a brave and intelligent man'' and compared him to Alexis de Tocqueville, who was best known for his 1835 work ''Democracy in America.''

Mr. Schlesinger said Father Bruckberger had written ''an acute and thoughtful book, which will compel all its readers to deepen their own understanding of the meaning of America.''

In the book, Father Bruckberger said of the architects of the American Revolution, ''Though these men were the political heirs of the New England Puritans, they had rid themselves of prejudice and fanaticism.'' And what they began became ''the great revolution of modern times, the only one that has essentially changed the forms of society.''

Similarly, an editorial in Life magazine called Father Bruckberger ''one of the few Europeans since Tocqueville who has grasped the reasons why American democracy is different and has been able to transcend the socialist arguments that still roil so much of Europe.''

Another book by Father Bruckberger, ''The History of Jesus Christ'' (1965), was acclaimed in a review by Jaroslav Pelikan, professor of ecclesiastical history at Yale, as ''a bold statement of what the person of Jesus Christ means to a highly sensitive and thoughtful former leader of the French Resistance.''

Father Bruckberger repeatedly criticized reforms of the Catholic church undertaken after the Second Vatican Council, which was held from 1962 to 1965. He was particularly critical of changes in the Mass, and denounced what he once called ''the liturgical delirium of a faction within the contemporary clergy.''

It was after he retired that he recounted in a volume of memoirs, ''At the Hour When the Shadows Lengthen'' (1989), the love he had come to feel in the United States for an American woman. ''I was 48,'' he recalled in an interview in 1989. ''I was very seductive, I think.''

After his stay in the United States, he lived in Greece until 1961, then returned to France.

Father Bruckberger acknowledged that his relationship with his faith was troubled after his liaison with the American woman, one of several. In a self-critical vein, he once described himself as an ''unworthy priest who does not celebrate the mass anymore, who does not even attend it, who does not practice anymore the religion which he continues to profess.''

In his later years, Le Figaro wrote, with some understatement, ''With his opulent white head of hair, his cane with its silver knob, the Reverend Father Bruckberger did not mix any ecclesiastical unctuousness with his elegance.''

Why Study Aquinas?

2011-07-14T09:15:00.000-04:00

Dr. Simon Oliver (Nottingham) discusses why he devotes so much attention to the medieval Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas (1225-74); and argues that when someone today comes to grips with his thought, that learning experience trains one to think theologically.

Some of the Fall 2011 courses at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. are listed below:

(click to enlarge)

Lectures in Dominican History Part 6

2011-07-13T19:18:00.003-04:00

In Lecture 6 Fr. J.F. Hinnebusch, O.P., discusses the Rule of Saint Augustine, canons regular, the Norbetines, the system of provinces, provincial visitations, itinerancy, the rise of commercial economies and urbanization in the 12th cent., medieval education, cathedral schools, monastic schools, universities, Augustinian theology, the introduction of Aristotle in the medieval West, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

The Dominican Mission to Pakistan

2011-07-09T20:46:00.013-04:00

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen blessing Dominican missionaries to Lebanon and Pakistan, August 31, 1956. The friar standing on the left (to Fulton Sheen's right) is The Very Rev. William Dalmatius Marrin, O.P., Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph from 1955-1963 and Preacher General. He died on June 27, 1982, and is buried at Mt. Olivet, Washington, D.C. The friars being sent to Lebanon were: Fr. Alan Smith, O.P. (the tall friar kneeling in front of Fr. Marrin; Fr, Smith was a Scripture scholar and brother of Fr. Raymond Smith, O.P. and Fr. Elwood Ferrer Smith, O.P.); Fr. Thomas Heath, O.P. (on the far left with face blocked; Fr. Heath, brother of Fr. Mark Heath, O.P., Fr. Walter Heath, O.P., and Maryknoll Sister Mary Heath, was a scholar and missionary and later served in Kenya where he was killed in 2005); Fr. Robert Louis Every, O.P. (kneeling to Fr Smith's left and in front of Fr Heath. Fr. Louis Every later served as Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph); and Br. Richard Long, O.P. (third from left). For more information about this picture and the names of the Pakistani missionaries blessed by Archbishop Sheen see the Province of St. Joseph site here. The history of the Dominicans in Pakistan is described at the site of the Ibn-e-Mariam Vice Province here.

For the story of this 1963 documentary on the Dominican Mission in Pakistan see the Province of St. Joseph site here.

Some of the friars who served in Pakistan

Dominican Brother, Ireland, ca. 1900

2011-07-08T08:55:00.002-04:00

From the National Library of Ireland, a Dominican friar ca. 1900, source: Flickr.

And Dominican Nuns, Ireland, ca. 1900:

Source: Fergal, O.P.

Fr. Val LaFrance, O.P. (1921-2011)

2011-07-06T22:50:00.007-04:00

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Valerian LaFrance, O.P., one of the great preachers of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. A death notice with a brief biography can be found online here and our provincial site has a photo from the recent dedication of the preaching lab at the Dominican House of Studies. The lab was made possible by a benefaction in Fr. Val's honor and is helping to train the next generation of Dominican preachers. The funeral homily by Fr. Bruce Williams, O.P., is posted on the Province of St. Joseph site. Oral history video interviews with Father LaFrance are available online in two parts, one (2006) and two (2007). Below are some images from Fr. Val's student days and his priestly ordination in 1958.

Update: Article in The Florida Catholic by Toni Pallatto: The family will celebrate a memorial Mass on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 11 a.m. at St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester, N.H. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Father LaFrance’s name to: The Dominican Fathers Center for Assisted Living, 630 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20024.


Ordination 1958 Washington, D.C.

Parents Odie Perry LaFrance and Hon. Edward Trefle LaFrance

Aquinas on the Decalogue

2011-07-06T15:39:00.002-04:00

Matthew Levering speaking at Wheaton College - a brief audio excerpt of a lecture on St Thomas Aquinas on the Decalogue. Link to audio on iTunes and at Wheaton as Mp3. The text of Aquinas's Explanation of the Ten Commandments is available at the Dominican House of Studies priory site here.

Summary of the Ten Commandments

These are the ten precepts to which Our Lord referred when He said: “If you would enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17). There are two main principles of all the Commandments, namely, love of God and love of neighbor. The man that loves God must necessarily do three things: (1) he must have no other God. And in support of this is the Commandment: “You shall not have strange gods”; (2) he must give God all honor. And so it is commanded: “You shall not take the name of God in vain”; (3) he must freely take his rest in God. Hence: “Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day.”

But to love God worthily, one must first of all love one’s neighbor. And so: “Honor your father and mother.” Then, one must avoid doing harm to one’s neighbor in act. “You shall not kill” refers to our neighbor’s person; “You shall not commit adultery” refers to the person united in marriage to our neighbor; “You shall not steal” refers to our neighbor’s external goods. We must also avoid injury to our neighbor both by word, “You shall not bear false witness,” and by thought, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”

Lectures in Dominican History Part 5

2011-07-03T20:24:00.003-04:00

In Lecture 5 Fr. Hinnebusch speaks about the history of monasticism, new forms of religious life in the early and high Middle Ages, cathedral clergy, the canons regular and secular, cathedral canons, collegiate churches, the vita canonica, distinguishing the friar from the canon regular, the via regia and via media, the royal middle road, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Dominican Sisters Ride into Austin

2011-07-02T19:53:00.001-04:00

From the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist:

Our Texas Expansion

In August of 2009, eight Sisters arrived in the Diocese of Austin upon the invitation of Bishop Gregory Aymond to assist in the mission of Catholic education and to establish a priory. Since then, the Dominican Sisters of Mary have been teaching in three diocesan schools at both the elementary and high school levels. Two of the Sisters are working at a branch of the Sisters’ Mission Advancement Office located at the Diocesan Pastoral Center to develop a plan for the community’s expansion into the area. The Sisters deeply appreciate the warm welcome and enthusiastic support they have received from Bishop Joe Vásquez and many others in Central Texas.

With the Motherhouse at capacity and the extraordinary rate of vocations coming to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, the building of a priory in Austin is both a timely response to the tremendous growth the community has experienced, as well as a tremendous opportunity for the growth of the Church in Central Texas. The Sisters’ hope is that the priory will be a source of leaven and joy in the region as it will support the mission of Catholic education and build up the Church through the visible witness of lives totally dedicated to Christ. In late spring 2011, the Sisters made the decision to purchase a beautiful 60 acre property in northeast Austin for the site of their future priory.

Saint Peter Martyr 1206-1252

2011-06-30T16:41:00.003-04:00

St Peter Martyr

St Mary, Thornham Parva, Suffolk, England.

A detail of the Thornham Parva retable. Made for the Dominican Priory in Thetford in the 1330s, it was discovered in a barn in the 1920s and donated to the church.

A Brief History of St. Dominic's Monastery in Virginia

2011-06-25T11:10:00.001-04:00

A brief history of the new Saint Dominic's Monastery, Linden, Virginia:

The first monastery of Dominican nuns in the U.S. was founded at Newark, NJ, in 1880. Our own Saint Dominic's Monastery traces its beginnings to the foundation in Union City, NJ, where, in 1906, a small group of nuns was sent to the town of Baker City, OR. The pastoral needs of the Bishop there were such that he soon requested these pioneers to take up nursing or teaching and to leave behind their cloistered contemplative life, so in 1909, they settled in La Crosse, WI which became the second site of St. Dominic's Monastery. Changing patterns of Church life in the 1970's left the nuns without proper chaplain services and other conditions essential to monastic life and so the decision was made in 1984 to move temporarily to Washington, DC where they would be in close proximity to their Dominican Friars at the House of Studies. This "temporary" dwelling was home to the nuns for 22 years. On June 24, 2008, the community moved into their new, permanent monastery in Linden, VA, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and an hour's drive from DC.

The nuns of Saint Dominic's Monastery continue a tradition of contemplative life as developed by Saint Dominic himself in the early thirteenth century. What especially distinguishes Dominican contemplative nuns from other enclosed communities is the special attachment to the mysteries of Christ and of His life which the nuns cherish, especially through their praying of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the primacy of the liturgy, and their tradition of theological study.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

2011-06-22T20:19:00.001-04:00

Charlton Heston narrates Kenneth L Schmitz, St Thomas Aquinas (Nashville, TN: Knowledge Products ; Ashland, Or: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2006) audio excerpt, 2 min.

Book Description: In the late 13th century, this quiet reflective Dominican scholar concentrated his work on philosophical concerns that today would be considered to be partly theological. He combined the work of Aristotle with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan thought to reconcile reason and faith; he believed we can know that God exists, but not what God is like. Thomas's masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica), contains over 10,000 objections and replies to fundamental questions about God and the world. It enumerates virtues and vices, and it includes Thomas's famous "five ways" to prove God's existence, which are (1) the unmoved mover, (2) the uncaused cause, (3) the necessary being, (4) the perfect Goodness, and (5) the guiding intelligence. Thomas believed that God is absolutely simple, perfect, good, infinite, omnipresent, changeless, eternal, and unique.

Queen of the Rosary Dominican Convent (1873-2007)

2011-06-19T22:17:00.002-04:00

Center: Mother Seraphina Staimer, O.P., March 30, 1879

The history of the Dominican Sisters convent on Long Island, New York, the Dominican Sisters of Amityville.

A history of Queen of the Rosary convent, Rosary Hall, on Long Island, New York, from its conception to the time of renovation. Your host is Sister Mary Erica Burkhardt, Director of the Heritage Center of the Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 4

2011-06-16T17:12:00.001-04:00

In Lecture 4 Fr. John F. Hinnebusch, O.P., speaks about the various forms of monastic life, the ordo monasticus, monks and the apostolate, the Benedictines, the history of monasticism in the early Church, the reform movements in the middle ages and medieval period, Cluny, the Carthusians, the Abbot of Citeaux, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

PC's Missing Class of 1944

2011-06-13T20:02:00.003-04:00

In attendance at this year's ROTC Commissioning at Providence College was George Fisher, who received an Honorary Degree at PC's Commencement Exercises on behalf of all the soldiers of the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) from PC's "missing class" of 1944.

The Army Specialized Training Program was established by the United States Army in December 1942 to identify, train and educate academically-talented enlisted men as a specialized corps of Army officers during World War II.

By August of 1943 there were 380 members of the ASTP at Providence College. They were billeted in Aquinas and Guzman Halls, took their classes in Harkins Hall, drilled on Hendricken’s Field, and exercised in the gym at Harkins Hall and on the campus’ training field – where the Slavin Center would later be built. When the program was disbanded in May of 1944, the ASTP men of Providence College were assigned to the 328th Infantry Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division (the “Yankee Division”). Their unit fought in the Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe Campaigns during World War II. On October 17, 1998, during a reunion the men of the ASTP Unit of Providence College dedicated a plaque to 37 men of their number who were killed in action during World War II.

Norman Hilarion Fenton, O.P. (1922-2011)

2011-06-13T14:11:00.011-04:00

Father Norman Fenton, O.P., came to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. in 1977 to teach philosophy. Earlier he had taught courses in philosophy at Dominican College in Racine, Wisconsin, and at the University of Dallas. Even earlier he had practiced law (rather briefly), thereafter had begun to pursue a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Chicago, embraced Roman Catholicism in 1952, and entered the Dominican Order (Central Province) as a novice in 1955.

During World War II Fr. Fenton served in the United States Army (1942-1946), and earned the rank of Technical Sergeant. He later earned a B.A. and a law degree from Stanford University (1947 and 1949), an S.T.Lr. from the Aquinas Institute in Dubuque (1962), and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1969). At the Dominican House of Studies he taught courses in the history of philosophy, in metaphysics and epistemology, and in other philosophic sub-disciplines. He was an editor of The Thomist and published a number of reviews in that journal. His special philosophic concern was to nourish in his own mind and communicate to others a full-bodied realism in the Thomistic tradition. After spending many years in Washington he decided to transfiliate to the Eastern Province in 1992. Fr. Fenton was loved and appreciated by his family and his brethren, his many students, and the men and women he served in the Dominican Third Order, the Teams of our Lady, and the Aquinas Circles. An obituary has been published in the Columbus Dispatch.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen.

An excerpt from the final lines of a review Fr. Fenton published in The Thomist 40 (1976) 484-87.

Review of: Actualitas Omnium Actuum: Man's Beatific Vision of God as Apprehended by Thomas Aquinas. By William J. Hoye. Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hain, 1975. Pp. 363. 79 DM.

.....Having said unpleasant things after laudatory things, I should like to sandwich the unpleasant things between kind things by concluding on a favorable note. Hoye's book does importantly advance the purpose which he intended it to fulfill: the total exploration of the implications of " existential " Thomism with respect to man's eternal happiness. If he fails to accomplish this purpose in a definitive and magisterial way, if there are serious flaws in his thinking and in his exegesis of Aquinas, his book will nonetheless be a stimulus, an opulent treasury of relevant materials, a comprehensive first draft, as it were, for others who may devote themselves to the same undertaking. And, if he exaggerates the continuity between this life and the next, he at least gives us a Scylla to complement the Charybdis of so many eschatologists.

Norman E. Fenton, O. P.
Dominican House of Studies
Washington, D. C.

And a touch of Fr. Fenton's humor, from his book on Leibniz (A New Interpretation of Leibniz's Philosophy: With Emphasis on His Theory of Space, 1973): From the Preface–....."In deference to tradition I ought to thank my wife for her proofreading and longsuffering. But I cannot do so; she has not helped me at all. In fact, she does not even exist. Since it is my commitment to the Dominican Order which precludes the married state, I express my appreciation for the assistance and moral support which have been generously forthcoming from fellow-Dominicans."

The Dominican Church of St Saviour's, Limerick (1815)

2011-06-01T20:11:00.001-04:00

St Saviour's Limerick

History and photos from Fergal, O.P.

St Saviour's church is also the parish church of St Saviour's parish. This parish was created by Bishop Henry Murphy in 1973 and was formerly part of the parish of St Michael's.

The present day church in Glentworth Street was built in 1815/6 when the Dominicans moved from Fish Lane under the leadership of Fr Joseph Harrigan. Edward Henry, the Earl of Limerick donated the land to the Dominicans. The original church here was a plain church and it gave the impression of Gothic architecture. The church was designed by the Pain (sometimes spelt as Payne) brothers to replace the penal chapel in Fish Lane.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 27 March 1815 in the presence of Dr Tuohy, Bishop of Limerick and the Father Provincial of the Dominicans, Patrick Gibbons. The architect John Wallace renovated the present church in 1861/4. A clerestory was added raising the height of the church by 20 feet. The church is dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour Transfigured. The priory next door to the church in Glentworth St was rebuilt in 1943.

Inside the church on the left aisle, there is a chapel to the Sacred Heart (also called the Carbery chapel), beside which is a statue of St Anne. There is also a statue of the Child of Prague in the left aisle. The chapel to the Sacred Heart was erected in 1898 to the memory of Fr Carbery. At the top of the left aisle of the church there is a side altar to St Joseph.

There is a small cross on the side of the eighth seat from the front in the left aisle. This cross marks the site of the tomb of Fr Simon Joseph Harrigan OP, who was the main instigator of the building of this church in 1816. Fr Harrigan died on January 23rd 1838.

Opposite the Sacred Heart chapel, there is a chapel to St Martin de Porres. The Stations of the Cross are frescoes. An oak frame surrounds each fresco.

The stained glass windows are all of a similar nature in the left aisle. However the stained glass windows in the right aisle show different religious figures. They are (from the back) two Dominicans saints, St Thomas Aquinas on the left and St Albert on the right. This window is dedicated to the memory of Michael and Margaret Ryan. The next stained glass window depicts St Mary Magdalene in the left panel and St Luke the evangelist in the right panel. The next stained glass window is again divided into two panels, which depict St Catherine of Sienna on the left and St Dominic on the right. The next window shows St William and St Margaret. The stained glass window at the top of the right aisle depicts the Virgin Mary and St Joseph.

Paintings on both sides of the centre aisle show various Dominicans saints. They are (from the back left) St Vincent, St Catherine of Ricci, St Pius V, St Albert the Great and St Catherine of Siena and (from the back right) St Rose of Lima, St Peter the Martyr, St Margaret of Hungary, St Thomas Aquinas and St Dominic. They were all painted by Fr Aengus Buckley, a member of the Dominican order

Fr Buckley also painted the fresco "The Triumph of the Cross" over the chancel arch in 1951. This fresco shows Heavenly Father receiving the sacrifice of his Son into the glory of the Trinity. Some members of the church are looking on in contemplation. A detailed description of the fresco is given at the main door of the church. The stained glass window in the apse shows the Transfiguration. Over the marble altar, there is a life-size statue of St Martin in bronze. There are also statues of SS. Peter and Paul. There is a stained glass window by Messrs Murphy and Devitt.

To the right of the high altar, there is an altar to Our Lady of Limerick. The statue of Our Lady is from the 17th century and is called Our Lady of Limerick. Patrick Sarsfield brought the statue from Flanders in 1640. (This is not the Patrick Sarsfield who was a general in the Jacobite army during the Siege of Limerick in 1691.) Sarsfield donated the statue due to the outrages done by his father to Sir John Bourke. The statue is made from oak. For a number of years, the statue was buried in a box in the graveyard in the grounds of St Mary's Cathedral to avoid capture from the English authorities. The base of the altar shows the Arms of Limerick are incorporated into the crest of the Dominicans.

The Bishop of Emly, Terence Albert O'Brien, a Dominican, was hanged in the abbey ruins in 1651 for leading the resistance to General Ireton's siege. In 1982, an oratory to Bishop O'Brien containing a portrait of the bishop painted by Thomas Ryan was added to the church. This oratory is to the far right of the High Altar.

There is also a stained glass window in the oratory that depicts a number of different scenes. These scenes begin with the execution of Bishop O'Brien and continue to depict a number of the major events that happened in the Limerick region since O'Brien's execution in 1651. The stained glass window includes the following images, the coat of arms of Limerick in the Dominicans' crest, the persecution of Roman Catholics by the ruling English, the boat of emigration, agriculture, Ardnacrusha power station, Ireland's entry into the EEC and the Papal Visit of 1979.

As you enter the oratory, there is a statue on the right of St John Macias OP, who is the patron saint for exiles. The Baptismal font is also in the oratory and it is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary of Limerick & the Help of Christians.

Fr. Leo Peter Craig, O.P.

2011-05-30T13:50:00.012-04:00

On Memorial Day please remember Fr. Leo Peter Craig, O.P. (1913-1951), who was killed while serving as an Army Chaplain in Korea. In the picture above, taken moments before his death, Fr. Craig is seen anointing a soldier who had been severely injured by a land mine.

Fr. Craig was born in Everett, Massachusetts in 1913, attended LaSalle Academy in Providence and Providence College, graduating in 1935. That same year he entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Rose in Kentucky. After studying philosophy at River Forest, Illinois, and theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, he was ordained to the Priesthood on May 21, 1942. The picture above shows his ordination class at the Dominican House of Studies (including two Spanish friars from the Province of the Most Holy Rosary and three classmates from the Eastern Province, including John Joseph Ryan, O.P. of Long Island). Fr. Craig is standing on the left.

He served as at Aquinas High School, Columbus, Ohio and as a curate at St. Andrew’s parish in Cincinnati, Ohio. Father Craig volunteered for a chaplaincy in the Army in 1949. After the basic course in Chaplain school, he was assigned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Orders for Korea soon followed and Father Craig was assigned to the famous First Cavalry Division fighting in Korea. On his way to his new assignment he was given an opportunity to visit his brother, Father Lawrence Craig, a missionary of the Sacred Hearts stationed in Japan. (Source: The Greybeards, vol. 17 no. 6, 2003 pdf)

On April 15, 1951, as he was preparing to say Mass, he heard a loud explosion. A soldier had been injured by a landmine. Fr. Craig went to his assistance. The picture above shows Dr. Crouch, USNR of Boston working on the soldier, assisted by several GIs, as Fr. Craig kneels and administers the Last Rights. Within 30 seconds of the taking of the picture above, another soldier stepped on a nearby mine. Fr. Craig was killed along with seven others. The photographer survived because he had run out of film and had gone to find more.

On September 25, 1951, Fr. Craig's remains arrived on army transport in New York Harbor. He was brought to St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan where a solemn High Requiem Mass was offered in the Dominican rite. The ministers of the Mass were Reverend Thomas Q. Shanley, O.P., Associate Editor of the Holy Name Journal, Celebrant; Reverend Philip L. McQuillan O.P. of the Dominican Mission Band, Deacon; Reverend Thomas T. Shea, O.P., former Navy Chaplain, SubDeacon. Interment was at All Souls Cemetery in Pleasantville, New York.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 3

2011-05-30T09:21:00.001-04:00

In Lecture 3 Fr. John F. Hinnebusch, O.P., continues his treatment of the origins and development of semi-eremitical, eremitical, and cenobitical monasticism, the development of monastic life in the deserts of Egypt and Syria, spiritual fathers, early monastic literature, St. Jerome, St. Athanasius, St. Anthony, monastic rules in the Western Church, monastic stability, John Cassian, St. Patrick, St. Benedict, early Irish Christianity, St. Brendan, St. Columba, celtic monasticism, the Franks, the Carolingian Empire, the Dominican debt to St. Benedict, the Divine Office, choral obligations of the Friars Preachers, prayer and preaching, monastic practices of Dominican life, conversatio morum, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Professor Dr. Pater Richard Schenk, O.P.

2011-05-26T07:09:00.027-04:00

Congratulation to Fr. Richard Schenk, O.P., a son of the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus, who was recently elected President of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. The Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is Germany's only Catholic university. It was first established in April of 1980, but it continues an almost 450 year tradition of higher education, dating back to the Collegium Willibaldinum, which was founded in 1564 as the first seminary for priests north of the Alps. More on the election of Fr. Richard Schenk, O.P. at Kathpedia and Munich Kirchenradio.

The Dominicans first came to Eichstätt in Bavaria in the 13th century. The priory there was partially destroyed by a fire in 1366 and then rebuilt. The famous Dominican scholar Peter Georg Schwartz (Nigri), one of four brothers Schwartz, was a member of the community in the 15th century. In 1473 he was elected Prior at Eichstätt and in 1478 became professor of Old Testament in the University of Ingolstadt.
Video news report from the Donaukurier: Teleschau.

Updates:
1. Audio (mp3) interview on Munich Kirchenradio.
2. Audio (mp3) news report from Radio K1.
3. From Katholisch1TV.
4. Sensation in Eichstätt from Szene-Extra
5. Welt Online: Welcome, Mr. President

"Er ist eine Persönlichkeit mit großer Ausstrahlung und der Begabung, Freunde zu gewinnen", sagt Robert Spaemann. Während seines Studiums in München saß Schenk in den Oberseminaren des katholischen Philosophen. Beide kennen sich seither. Er könne in Eichstätt die schwierige Balance zwischen wissenschaftlicher Reputation, Weltoffenheit und katholischem Profil finden.
6. Katholisch1 TV 1 4.10.2011

The Translation of Saint Dominic

2011-05-24T09:25:00.008-04:00

Above, a relic of St Dominic - part of his skull - is being translated into the main church during the General Chapter of the Order of Preachers held in Rome in 2010.

Photo and historical background from Br Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Today, 24 May, is the Solemnity of the Translation of St Dominic, which is described thus in the Dominican breviary: "In accordance with his wishes, St Dominic was buried ‘beneath the feet of his brethren’ in the church of St Nicholas of the Vineyards, Bologna. Many of the sick avowed that they had been healed of their infirmities at his tomb; the brethren however were loath to recognise these miracles and accept votive offerings. However, on 24 May 1233, at the urging of Gregory IX and in the presence of Theodoric, archbishop of Ravenna and papal legate, Dominic’s body was moved to a marble sepulchre during the celebration of a General Chapter at Bologna attended by Bl. Jordan of Saxony and many brethren. Immediately a certain marvellous odour came forth from his sacred body, ‘showing clearly to all how much the saint had truly been the aroma of Christ."

For a homily (audio) by the Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph given this morning at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan and a wonderful description of the tomb of St. Dominic and the translation celebrated this day see the CSVF blog here. More on the historical origins of this memorial and a homily can be found at The Specious Pedestrian by Fr. Dominic Holtz, O.P.
Dominicans in Washington mark the feast with a pilgrimage:

Washington Post

Easter in St Petersburg, Russia

2011-05-23T08:37:00.002-04:00

The video below shows the new Dominican pastor of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in St. Petersburg, the oldest Catholic parish in the city, celebrating the Easter Vigil and singing the exultet in Russian. The parish was founded in 1783, closed in 1938, and reopened only in 1992. The new pastor, Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, O.P., named after Blessed Hyacinthe Cormier, O.P., is a French Dominican and an expert in Orthodox theology. A video of his installation as pastor can be found here. The blog of the Dominicans serving in Russia can be found at this link.

Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

2011-05-22T17:05:00.003-04:00

Excerpt from a homily by Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. – "Last, and most important for us: Fr. Cormier was a man of prayer. This is important because it lies behind the House in which we live and worship today. When he was elected Master in 1904, Cormier was ultimately in charge of implementing the recommendations of a recent visitation of the Province of St. Joseph. Among these was the idea that a house of formation might be built in Washington, D.C. that would contribute to the deepening of the common observances of the Order in our Province. There is a letter from Cormier written in 1905 at the time of the opening of the House that is still with us today. In it he underscores (in cursive French), that he desires that the House be a place of piety, study, common observance, and “adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist”. Even at his busiest, Cormier was known to spend hours each day in front of the Eucharist, praying and meditating. He wanted for us that we might accede to the presence of Christ as the life giving and life altering presence among us, here in this very building and in this very chapel.

There are not many people that can say that they live in a house of religion whose construction was mandated by a saint. We are privileged to be able to do so. But we must also try to be apt to receive that privilege and gift: to be persons who believe in dependence upon divine providence. To be persons who are committed to the common good, and live for the higher ideals of the Order, advocating and advancing these ideas with prudence and charity, and to be men of prayer, committed to the presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Blessed Hyacinth Marie Cormier: pray for us, that God may bring to perfection this good work that he has begun among us. Amen."

Excerpt from a Homily for the Feast of Bl. Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P. (1832-1916), given on May 21 at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C., by Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. Père Cormier was beatified in 1994.

On Preaching

2011-05-21T16:36:00.004-04:00

Father William Raymond Bonniwell, O.P., 1886-1984, recalls his service on the mission band of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the 1930s and 1940s, and his time as an instructor at the Preaching Institute of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. The Prior Provincial Fr. Bonniwell refers to was The Very Rev. Terence Stephen McDermott, O.P., who served in that capacity from 1930-1955.

From an interview with Fr. William R. Bonniwell, O.P. (1886-1984) filmed in 1982 at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory, NYC. A noted Dominican preacher and teacher, Fr. Bonniwell is remembered especially for his books on the Dominican liturgy and on the life of Blessed Margaret of Castello (1287-1320).

Video shot by Dr. Gavin Colvert, nephew of the interviewer, Fr. Antoninus Wall, O.P., a friar of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, the Western Dominican Province. Edited at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 2

2011-05-19T12:04:00.001-04:00

In Lecture 2 Fr. John F. Hinnebusch, O.P. speaks about the ideals of the early Church, persecutions under Diocletian, the edict of Milan, the sources for early Christian history, and the origins and development of semi-eremitical, eremitical, cenobitical, and monastic life in the Church.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Dominican Chaplain in World War I

2011-05-17T22:46:00.005-04:00

Fr. Quitman Francis Beckley, O.P. (1891-1963) was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Navy, on June 26, 1917, and was assigned duty with the Atlantic Fleet, subsequently being transferred at his own request, on April 2, 1918, to the United States Marine Corps, and, somewhat later assigned to the 3d Replacement Battalion, Infantry, of the Marine Corps, for duty in France.

Thus, from April to December of 1918, he was on active duty with the A. E. F. at the front, being gassed (Battle of Belleau Wood) and shell-shocked while carrying on his duties. After two months of service, late in 1918, also with the Graves Registration Service, United States Army Headquarters, Paris, France, he was once again assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet, and remained with that assignment until July 9, 1919, when he resigned from the Navy. On November 19, 1920, he was re-commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Chaplains Corps, of the United States Navy Reserve Force, by President Wilson. On January 6, 1921, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Chaplain Corps of the Ohio Naval Militia by Governor Cox.

Father Beckley later served as Catholic Chaplain at Princeton University, a position he held for over 15 years. He was also appointed auxiliary chaplain to the armed forces on Princeton Campus on April 2, 1943, by Abp. Spellman. Father Beckley died on May 18, 1963, and is buried in the Dominican plot at Mount Olivet in Washington, D.C.

Entry in C. M. Drury, The History of the Chaplain Corps, 
United States Navy  (Vol. 3, Washington, D.C., 1948) p. 23:
BECKLEY, Quitman Francis — RC (OP) 
B. Frederick, Md, 5 Feb 1891; Cath U, BCL, 1914; 
Providence Coll, LLD, 28; ord, Card Bonzano, 
23 Jun 15; asst chap, Wash Soldiers Home. 

Appt, Act Chap, USN, 22 Jun 1917; RS, NY, 20 
Jul - 16 Aug; USS KEARSAGE, 21 Aug - 3 Mar 18; 
10th Reg Mar, Quantico, 7 Mar - 2 Apr; 3rd Repl 
Battn, USMC, 2 Apr - 26 Dec; USS PROMETHEUS, 7 
Feb 19 - 18 Jul. Fr Fourragers, for ser with 
6th Mar. Res, 29 Jul 19. Enr, USNRF, CI 2 30 Aug 
19, as of 22 Jun 17. Gassed at Belleau Woods.

Forty Dominicans at their Desks

2011-05-16T22:06:00.007-04:00

"A learned Dominican of the last century, Fr. Alberto Guglielmotti, used to say to his novices, 'A true Dominican ought to die at his desk or in the pulpit.' Fr. Guglielmotti himself died fittingly at his desk on September 29, 1893." (From Fr. James Weisheipl, O.P.)

Dominicans at their Desks

Dominican friars came to Treviso (northern Italy) in the 13th century and San Nicolò was their conventual Church. The chapter room shown in the video below features a large 14th century fresco by Tomaso da Modena depicting forty famous Dominicans in their cells and hard at work at their desks.

Treviso sala capitolare ex convento di s. Nicolò ora Seminario.

L'affresco del Ciclo dei Domenicani rappresenta 40 personaggi illustri dell'Ordine Domenicano e è stato dipinto da Tomaso da Modena nel 1352.

The Cycle of the Dominicans
(San Nicolò)

The cycle depicts forty famous dignitaries of the Dominican Order and was commissioned from Tomaso by the Dominicans. Starting from the right side of the Crucifixion can be seen Pope Innocent V, Pope Benedict XI and Cardinal Hugh of Provence. On the wall to the south are a succession of various cardinals: Annibaldo degli Annibaldi, Pierre de Tarentaise, Robert of England (of Kilwardby), Latino Malabranca, Hugo of Billom, Niccolò Boccassino (future Pope Benedict XI), Niccolò da Prato, Walter of England (of Winterburn), Nicholas of Rouen (of Freauville) and Thomas of England (of York).On the wall to the west cardinals are followed by friars. The cardinals are William of England (Marlesfeld), Matteo Orsini, Guillaume of Bayonne, Bonifacio da Pisa, Tomaso dei Molini, Gerard of Toulouse (of Daumario-Guardia) and Giovanni dei Molendini. The friars are Guido Maramaldi of Naples, Maurice of Hungary (Csak), Peter of Palude, August of Traù (Kazotic), James of Venice, Ambrose of Siena (Sansedoni) and Vincent of Beauvais.

On the wall to the north the representation of friars continues with Bernard de Transversa (of Traversères), Pelagius of Spain (born in Coimbra), Francesco Sendre of Spain, Walter of Germany, Isnardo da Vicenza, John of Schio or Vicenza, Albertus Magnus, John of Saxony (or Teutonicus), Raymond of Pennafort and Giordano of Saxony. To finish, on the left of the Crucifixion can barely be seen St. Dominic, St. Peter Martyr and St. Thomas Aquinas, under whom Tomaso's signature would seem to have been but which has unfortunately disappeared.

Saint Rose Proto-Priory (1806)

2011-05-13T20:11:00.003-04:00

St Rose Proto-Priory and Church, Springfield, Kentucky
Established 1806
Current Church built in 1855
Photos from the site of Mr. Kenny Browning.

With its majestic octagonal tower and inspiring stained-glass windows, St. Rose Proto-Priory and Church has served Springfield for 200 years. Established in 1806, the proto-priory remains the oldest Dominican religious house in the country. Its Tudor-Gothic church, built the same year, is the oldest standing structure west of the Alleghenies still in use as a church. Named in honor of the Third Order Dominican Saint Rose of Lima, it began as a sister parish of St. Ann. After St. Ann closed several decades later, St. Rose became the area’s only Catholic church.

The first leader of the newly-formed Dominican province of St. Joseph, Father Edward Fenwick, O.P. (eventually bishop of Cincinnati), organized the Dominican venture at St. Rose and purchased the property for the parish. Father Samuel Thomas Wilson, O.P., was the first pastor.

The Dominican friars founded a college—the first Catholic educational institution west of the Alleghenies—for boys and young men in 1808 or 1809. Dedicated to Saint Thomas Aquinas, it flourished for several decades. Among its distinguished alumni was Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.

The growing Catholic population needed a larger church. Dedicated in 1855, the new church was an expansion of the original building, which now comprises the sanctuary, between the tabernacle and the new altar. A larger priory was constructed in 1867 to accommodate the addition of a seminary. The old priory remained intact until both priory buildings were demolished in 1978 and replaced by an eight-bedroom priory. Until 1956, when the seminary moved, seminarians worked the 600-acre farm on the complex. The farm ceased operation in 1978.

A parish school operated from 1951 until 1968. The school building is still used for many purposes, including a Head Start program, wedding receptions and family reunions, and the annual autumn turkey supper, which serves about 3,100 people. Today 650 parishioners count St. Rose as their spiritual home

The History of Saint Rose Priory

The story of Saint Rose Priory begins with Father Edward Dominic Fenwick. His father was a wealthy member of the Maryland Colonial Convention who became a patriot of the American Revolution. Their large house overlooked the Patuxent River in Saint Mary's County. After the war, the Fenwicks sent their son to Holy Cross College in Bornem, Belgium. There in 1788, he followed in the footsteps of his uncle John Ceslas Fenwick by joining the Order of Friars Preachers.

Four friars set out, to establish a boarding school for boys in Maryland, but the Sulpicians were already in Baltimore and the Jesuits in Georgetown. So, Bishop John Carroll recommended Kentucky. The other three distinguished Dominican priests who joined Fenwick in the venture were: Samuel Thomas Wilson, a Master of Sacred Theology, and Robert Antoninus Angier, a Lectorate in Sacred Theology and Preacher General, and finally William Raymond Tuite, another Lectorate in Sacred Theology. As of June 22, 1805, Edward Dominic Fenwick was named the superior. The Master of the Order, Pius Joseph Gaddi, named the new province after his patron, Saint Joseph.

At that time, the only priest in Kentucky was Father Stephen Theodore Badin. Fenwick rode out to Kentucky first and then returned to liquidate his 800 acre inheritance. Wilson and Tuite made the journey in a wagon, but suffered injury and delay in the mountains. Bishop Carroll, however, kept Father John Fenwick in Maryland.

In Washington County, the friars found many of the faithful living along Cartwright Creek. At first, Father Wilson lived in a log cabin known as Saint Ann's, and soon began teaching. The site today is merely a hilltop at the junction of three farms, two miles down the road from the present priory, in Cisselville. Father Tuite went to Bardstown. When Fenwick returned in July 1806, he used his inheritance to buy a farm of about 500 acres with a gristmill, sawmill, and a two-story brick house from John Waller. Wilson and his pupils, as well as Tuite, then moved to what is now Saint Rose, named after the first American saint.

Construction of a priory and church began almost immediately, but on higher ground. The priory was inhabited by December 1806 but not completed until the next year.

The Tudor Gothic church was dedicated on Christmas Day 1809. That church is the sanctuary of the present church. Although pupils lived with the friars from the beginning, Saint Thomas of Aquin College was added to the priory. In the early years, the faculty included laymen. On September 21, 1816, four friars were ordained to the priesthood, including Richard Pius Miles who eventually became the first Bishop of Nashville.

The year 1822 would prove to be monumental. On January 13 in Saint Rose Church, Edward Dominic Fenwick was consecrated as the first Bishop of Cincinnati. Later that year, John Thomas Hynes was ordained to the priesthood. He would later become a titular bishop and Vicar Apostolic of British Guiana.

One Sunday around this same time, Wilson appealed to the women of the parish to dedicate themselves to religious life. Of the nine who responded immediately, four were formally received, and by August six more joined the sisterhood. Their leader, Mariah Sansbury, became Sister Angela. A log house was built for them on the property across the creek which they called Bethany.

Soon they moved to the Sansbury farm, however, and turned the stillhouse into Saint Mary Magdalen Academy for girls. This in time grew into Saint Catharine College, and a network of Dominican convents across the country.

By 1828, Saint Thomas of Aquin College closed, because there were other schools, and because the prior, Raphael Munos, turned the friars away from secular education. Saint Rose, however, continued to be a novitiate and seminary.

There were several other bishops who came from Saint Rose, but perhaps the most distinguished person to have lived and studied there was Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli (1806-64). After his ordination by Fenwick in Cincinnati on September 5, 1830, he was sent at first as Missionary Apostolic to Mackinac in Michigan. So fruitful was his widespread apostolate, especially among the Indians, that today his cause for beatification is well underway.

The Dominican friars built Saint Dominic's Church in downtown Springfield in 1844, and cared for its people for 40 years. Many other Churches were established and maintained until diocesan priests came. At Saint Rose in 1855, the present church building was added to the front of the old church. Its stained-glass windows, which are almost the same as those of Saint Louis Bertrand's in Louisville, were installed years later.

During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides came to Saint Rose. They sometimes begged for food or stole a horse. One priest had his horse taken from him by Morgan's Raiders while on his way to give the Blessed Sacrament to a dying person, but Captain John Hunt Morgan, ordered that the horse be returned. The friars frequently ministered to the Federals at their barracks in Lebanon, in Marion County.

In 1867, Father Constantine Louis Egan built the large red brick building that would serve primarily as a Dominican novitiate and seminary. His successor, Father Joseph Henry Slinger (1869-72) then had the old college wing demolished. A fire destroyed nearby Saint Catharine's Academy on January 3, 1904. To provide bricks for the sisters, the end of the old priory was shortened. In 1905, Dominican novices went to Somerset, Ohio, and student brothers went to Washington, D.C. while Saint Rose was reduced to a retirement home. An increase in vocations, however, required a renovation. After 1917, newly professed brothers went to Kentucky to study philosophy before going to Washington for theology. In 1925, philosophy students went to River Forest, Illinois, and Saint Rose became the novitiate again. Father Lorenz Pius Johannsen then began a record 17 year term as the novice master. The novitiate for laybrothers, meanwhile, alternated among each of these four priories.

Father James Aldridge, during his two terms as prior (1927-33), transformed the old part of the church into the priory chapel because the chapel in the brick building had to be used to accommodate novices. So, he connected the buildings with a passageway. Between 1929-30, Aldridge also built Holy Rosary Church in Springfield for Catholics of African descent. Saint Rose continued to be the school for the first year of philosophy until 1956. Throughout its history, the farm and dairy employed several laymen. A grammar school was built in 1951, but it operated only until 1968. It is now used for the Head Start program and parochial functions.

In 1978, realizing that Saint Rose would henceforth be primarily a parish, the first Dominican priory in the country was torn down, as well as the old novitiate, in order to erect a small priory. Most of the land was sold, leaving less than 100 acres. Dominican brothers and sisters now visit Saint Rose on occasion, either to recollect the old days, or to pay homage to our forefathers who made this a sacred place.

The History of the Province of Saint Joseph at its Bicentenary (1805-2005)

2011-05-09T15:46:00.001-04:00

A brief introduction to the Dominican Order, founded in 1216, and the Province of Saint Joseph, the Eastern Dominican Province in the United States, founded in 1805. This film was made on the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the Province of St. Joseph in 2005. DominicanFriars.org

The Croatian Dominican Province

2011-05-06T21:48:00.004-04:00

The Croatian Dominican Province (Hrvatska dominikanska provincija) will host the next General Chapter of the Dominican Order in Dubrovnik in 2013. The history of the Dominicans in Dalmatia can be traced back to the beginnings of the Dominican Order, and their presence in Dubrovnik dates to 1225. The modern province is called the Dominican Province of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The map below gives as sense of the deep roots of the Dominicans in the region.

Fr. Stjepan Krasic, O.P., describes the history of the Dominicans in Dubrovnik in this video.

Provincial Vicariate:: Provincial Vicariate of Slovenia (belonging to Croatia (Annunciation of the BVM))
Priory:: Conventus S. P. N. Dominici (DUBROVNIK)
Priory:: Conventus S. Catharinae V. M. (SPLIT)
Priory:: Conventus Reginae SS. Rosarii (ZAGREB)
House:: Domus B. Austustini Kažotić (ZENICA) (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
House:: Domus S. Mariae Gratiarum (BOL NA BRACU)
House:: Gruz - Domus S. Crucis (DUBROVNIK)
House:: Domus S. Nicolai (KORCULA)
House:: Domus S. Hieronymi E. D. (RIJEKA)
House:: Domus S. Petri Mart. (STARI GRAD na Hvaru)
House:: Samostan Bl Augustin Kažotić (ZAGREB)
Filial House:: Domus Filialis S. P. N. Dominici (TROGIR)

Lectures in Dominican History Part 1

2011-05-06T20:54:00.001-04:00

In Lecture 1, the first of 25, Fr. John F. Hinnebusch, O.P. offers introductory remarks about Church History, the Church as a divine institution, the study of the history of the Dominican Order, and the goal of these lectures.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

The Rosary Priest of Ireland

2011-05-02T22:16:00.009-04:00

Father Gabriel Harty, O.P., a Dominican known as the Rosary Priest, is shown in this archival photo from the University of Dayton blessing a rosary.

The inscription on the back of the photograph reads: "A worker holds up his beads to be blessed by the director, Father Gabriel Harty, O.P. The Rosary Crusade has no badge or emblem, it needs none, for the beads are the common heritage of all. Photo: Charles C. Fennell." From the University of Dayton's Marian Library Flickr photostream.

Fr. Gabriel Harty, O.P., was born in 1921 and ordained as a secular priest for the Archdiocese of Dublin, joining the Dominican Order after four years. He was commissioned by the Order to be its official Promoter of the Rosary, a task that has brought him to every corner of Ireland and to many parts of Great Britain.

Video excerpt of Fr. Gabriel Harty, O.P., speaking about the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Read more at Fr Harty's site: The Rosary Priest.

Redemptor hominis (1979)

2011-05-01T13:29:00.008-04:00

A lecture on Blessed Pope John Paul II's first encyclical, Redemptor hominis (1979), given by Father J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P. as part of the St. Catherine of Siena Colloquium on Spirituality at the Dominican House of Studies in 1983. Introduction by the Prior, Fr. Charles Farrell, O.P., and Fr. Hugh Burns, O.P., with a letter of greeting from Augustino Cardinal Casaroli, Secretary of State. The colloquium was entitled: Pope John Paul II and a Spirituality of Human Progress.

The new collect for Blessed Pope John Paul II's memorial on October 22 makes reference to the title of this first encyclical by way of an allusion ("open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ, the sole Redeemer of mankind"), and Pope Benedict XVI referred to this encyclical explicitly at the beatification on May 1, 2011 – "To put it even more succinctly: he gave us the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the Redeemer of man. This was the theme of his first encyclical, and the thread which runs though all the others."

Redemptor hominis 9 and the Divine Mercy:

This revelation of the Father and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which stamp an indelible seal on the mystery of the Redemption, explain the meaning of the Cross and death of Christ. The God of creation is revealed as the God of redemption, as the God who is "faithful to himself" 56, and faithful to his love for man and the world, which he revealed on the day of creation. His is a love that does not draw back before anything that justice requires in him. Therefore "for our sake (God) made him (the Son) to be sin who knew no sin" 57. If he "made to be sin" him who was without any sin whatever, it was to reveal the love that is always greater than the whole of creation, the love that is he himself, since "God is love"58. Above all, love is greater than sin, than weakness, than the "futility of creation" 59, it is stronger than death; it is a love always ready to raise up and forgive, always ready to go to meet the prodigal son 60, always looking for "the revealing of the sons of God"61, who are called to the glory that is to be revealed" 62. This revelation of love is also described as mercy 63; [Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., III, q. 46, a. 1, ad 3.] and in man's history this revelation of love and mercy has taken a form and a name: that of Jesus Christ.

"I greet you, America the beautiful!" (Boston, 1979)

The Dominicans in Jaroslaw

2011-04-29T21:32:00.007-04:00

The beautiful Church and Marian shrine in Jaroslaw, in the southeastern corner of Poland, dates back to the 14th century. The shrine was served by diocesan clergy and the Society of Jesus until the suppression of the Jesuits in the late 18th century. The shrine was entrusted to the care of the Polish Dominicans in 1777, and they continue to minister there today. The artwork in the shrine reveals features of both Jesuit and Dominican iconography.

From the excellent site on the philately of the Dominican Order:

On 20.08.1381 shepherds found in the field, between the branches of a pear tree. a statue of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, with her Child. Very soon the people built a little chapel. In the first half of the 15^th century the chapel was replaced by a church, which Anna Kostka Ostrogska gave to the Jesuits in 1629. On the same place a new church was built, consecrated by Konstanty Dubrawski, suffragan bishop of Przemysl. On 08.09.1755 the bishop of Przemysl, Hieronym Sieralowski, crowned the Madonna and the Child. When the Jesuits had to leave their convent in 1733, the Dominicans from Bochina took the pastoral care for the church on 13.06.1777. In this church the Dominican Michal Czartoryski was ordained a priest on 24.12.1931. He was beatified by John Paul II on 11.06.2005. See postcard Poland 142/2005. On 28.09.1939 the German Gestapo confiscated priory and church and the Dominicans were interned in Sieniawa. At the end of de war they returned to the priory and church to serve the people. John Paul II had raised the church to basilica minor in 1966. On 15.08.2005 the community celebrated the 250^th year of the coronation of the Virgin Mary of Jaroslaw. Source: Letter of Bogdan Michalak, 10.12.2005.

More Triduum celebrations from the Polish Dominicans here.

Santa Caterina, Dottore della Chiesa

2011-04-28T09:50:00.007-04:00

Pope John Paul II speaking about St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Doctor of the Church, during his 1978 visit to the Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome: "Here before the relics of Saint Catherine I must once more thank divine Wisdom for having willed to make use of this simple and at the same time profound heart of a woman to point out the way, in a period of uncertainty, to the Church and especially to the Successors of Peter. Such great love, and such great courage! Such wonderful simplicity, but also such wonderful depth of soul: a person open to all the inspirations of the Spirit, and conscious of her mission.

I sincerely hope that in our times Saint Catherine, Doctor of the Church, will continue to be the patroness of the awareness of the Christian vocation of everyone. An awareness which, in a particular way, must mature and be increased, so that the Church can fulfill the mission entrusted to her by Christ, in accordance with the needs of our times!

In Saint Catherine of Siena I see a visible sign of the mission of women in the Church. I would like to say many things about this theme, but the short space of time today does not permit it. The Church of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles is at the same time a Church that is Mother and Spouse. These biblical expressions clearly reveal how deeply the mission of women is inscribed in the mystery of the Church. And may we discover together the many-sided significance of this mission—going hand in hand, with the world of women today, and basing ourselves on the riches which from the beginning the Creator placed in the heart of women, and on the wonderful wisdom of this heart, which God wished to reveal many centuries ago in Saint Catherine of Siena.

Just as in those times she was the teacher and guide of the Popes who had gone away from Rome, so also today may she be an inspiration to the Pope who has come to Rome, and may she bring close to him not only her own homeland but also all the lands of the earth, in the one single embrace of the universal Church. With these hopes I bless you all with all my heart."

The Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva:

At the Foot of the Cross

2011-04-21T15:53:00.007-04:00

Christ on the Cross Adored by Eight Saints of the Dominican Order, by the Flemish painter Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675), from the Louvre, Paris.

The museum website describes the work as following:

"This grisaille work was a model for an engraving by Adriaen Lommelin (c. 1616-after 1673). It is dated 1652 and dedicated to the newly appointed bishop of Ypres, the Dominican Ambrosius Capello. The saints represent the qualities a bishop should aspire to: doctrinal wisdom, Marian devotion, courage, rectitude, zeal in pastoral work and in preaching, charity, and intelligence-all under the sign of the cross, Verbum Cruci.

A preparatory work for an engraving

Abraham van Diepenbeeck worked on numerous projects for engravings and book illustrations. This pictorial study mainly uses black and white to indicate the presence of light and shadow for the engraver. In 1652 Adriaen Lommelin produced some forty prints from an engraving based on this painting. The engraving bears a Latin inscription, or rather a dedication by the monks of the Dominican monastery in Antwerp to their former prior, Marius Ambrosius Capello, a member of a patrician family from Italy who had settled in Antwerp, to commemorate his promotion to the position of bishop of Ypres. He was subsequently the seventh bishop of Antwerp, from 1654 to 1676. The brothers wish to see him practice the virtues of the eight Dominican saints shown at the foot of the cross, all proclaiming the Verbum Crucis-the Word of the Cross-as the Latin inscription on the phylactery borne by the cherubs indicates: "We, too, are preaching Christ on the cross."

Dominican iconography

The identity of each saint is indicated by his or her attributes. Each illustrates a particular quality that should inspire Capello in his ministry. Saint Thomas Aquinus, representing doctrinal wisdom, is about to begin writing, directly inspired by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Saint Hyacinth of Krakow, representing Marian devotion, is pointing at a statue of the Virgin. Saint Peter of Verona, tortured with daggers and cutlasses, represents courage. Saint Catherine of Siena, wearing a crown of thorns and bearing the stigmata, is the image of pure devotion. Saint Dominic, carrying a Marian lily, represents zeal in pastoral work. His name, domini canis, the Lord's dog, explains the presence of the black-and-white dog at his feet. Saint Vincent Ferrer's zeal in preaching is evident as he points towards Heaven to remind us of the Last Judgment, while the little child is an allusion to one of the miraculous cures he effected. The elderly Saint Raymond of Peñafort, the theologian of the sacrament of penitence, is the symbol of vigilance and rectitude. Finally, Saint Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, symbolizes just intelligence and charity. His scales are tipped towards the paper bearing the words Deo Gratias (legible only on the engraving), which are thus heavier than the fruit offered to the saint by a peasant in the hoping of winning his good favor.

Variations in tone and color

Van Diepenbeeck painted this model in grisaille to make the engraver's task easier. Yet the work is much more than a simple preparatory study, since it plays on subtle variations in tone and color. Heaven is a gray-mauve color, contrasting with the browns and golds of the earthly realm of the saints. The cold gray of the dead tree likewise contrasts with the warm brown of the cross-the Tree of Life. Van Diepenbeeck's paintings are characterized by the generosity of their forms and their flickering lines; he was one of the best imitators of the art of Rubens in the 1630s."

From the Spanish Dominicans:

St Thomas Aquinas and the Study of Philosophy

2011-04-18T16:47:00.006-04:00

“Looking unreservedly to truth, Thomas’ realism was able to recognize the objectivity of truth and produce not merely a philosophy of ‘what seems to be’ but a philosophy of ‘what is’."

From the Congregation for Catholic Education. Congregation Prefect Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Secretary Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès O.P.

The Reform of Ecclesiastical Studies of Philosophy (2011)

12. The philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas is important both for the acquisition of intellectual “habitus” and for the mature assimilation of the philosophical heritage. He knew how to place “faith in a positive relation with the dominant form of reason of his time.”[32] For this reason, he is stilled called the “apostle of truth.”[33] “Looking unreservedly to truth, Thomas’ realism was able to recognize the objectivity of truth and produce not merely a philosophy of ‘what seems to be’ but a philosophy of ‘what is’.”[34] The Church’s preference for his method and his doctrine is not exclusive, but “exemplary”.[35]

[32] Benedict XVI, Christmas Address to the Roman Curia, 22 December 2005, OR (23 December 2005), pp. 4-6.

[33] Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Lumen Ecclesiae (20 November 1974), 10, AAS 66 (1974), pp. 673-702.

[34] Fides et ratio, n. 44; cf. John Paul II, Speech at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (17 November 1979), OR (19-20 November 1979) pp. 2-3, n. 6.

[35] John Paul II, Address to Participants at the International Thomistic Congress (13 September 1980), OR (14 September 1980), pp. 1-2, n. 2.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 25

2011-04-16T19:31:00.006-04:00

In Lecture 25, the last lecture, Fr. Hinnebusch offers concluding remarks about the history of the Dominican Order, focusing particularly on the 20th century, the Angelicum, the intellectual apostolate, Thomism, the Leonine Commission, the Ecole Biblique, preaching, the mission to the heretical mind, communism and atheism, new missions, vicariates, new provinces, the apostolates of the French Dominican provinces, the English Province, the revival under Jandel, the Second Vatican Council, etc.

Lectures in Dominican history given in 1986 to Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph by Fr. John Frederick Hinnebusch, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. Lecture 25 of 25. Audio, 21 min.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

St. Nicholas of Flüe in Dominican History

2011-04-10T20:59:00.014-04:00

The Swiss Saint, Nicholas of Flüe (1417-1487), aka Bruder Klaus or Niklaus von Flüe, plays a small role in the history of the Dominican Order. A well known Dominican writer, Felix Fabri from Zürich, reports having visited the saint in 1475, and bears witness to his being sustained with food sent from heaven:

Wenn er aber kein materielles, sichtbares Brot schickt, so erhält er seine Lieblinge doch wunderbar durch eine unsichtbare Kraft, wie wir es von der heiligen Katharina von Siena lesen. Und das gleiche können wir heute, in unserer Zeit, mit eigenen Augen sehen. Denn wir wissen, dass der Einsiedler Nikolaus, in der abgeschiedenen Bergwelt ob dem Luzernersee, schon gegen die zwanzig Jahre ohne jegliche Speise und Trank lebt. Dies ist wunderbar zu vernehmen. Ich habe ihn selber im Jahre 1475 gesehen.

An unnamed Dominican is known to have visited the saint in 1469, at the request of the Bishop of Constance, and to have offered a report:

Ein gewisser Bruder aus dem Predigerorden ermahnte am Tage der Fronleichnamsoktav und am darauffolgenden Freitag im Jahre 1469, nach verschiedenen geistlichen Gesprächen, den frommen und andächtigen in Christo, Bruder Niklaus von Flüe von Unterwalden, er möge sich vor dem Geist der Hoffahrt in acht nehmen, und belegte dies mit vielen Gründen aus der Bibel und den Aussprüchen der Heiligen. Dieser erwiderte ihm, er fühle sich in dieser Hinsicht nicht oder nur selten beunruhigt. Darauf fragte der genannte Bruder, durch welche Stufen und Verdienste er zu dem gelangt sei, was man von ihm erzähle, dass er nämlich ohne irdische Speise lebe, und ob das wahr sei.

Bruder Klaus is also credited with having used his influence to prevent the Dominican Convent of St. Katharinental in Switzerland from being destroyed by the Swiss confederates when Austrians had fled there after the capture of Diessenhofen in 1460.

In the image most associated with the saint, Das Sachsler Meditationsbild, the priest depicted on the lower right offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the dead has often been thought to be a Dominican. Those who suggest this note the priest's tonsure, his manner of offering the chalice and paten, and the fact that he is shod, suggesting he is not a Franciscan. Others suggest that under the alb one can see signs of a dark habit, suggesting perhaps that he is an Augustinian and not a Dominican at all.

St Nicholas is known to many through his prayer quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (226):

My Lord and my God,
take from me everything that distances me from you.

My Lord and my God,
give me everything that brings me closer to you.

My Lord and my God,
detach me from myself to give my all to you.

In German:

Mein Herr und mein Gott,
nimm alles von mir, was mich hindert zu dir.

Mein Herr und mein Gott,
gib alles mir, was mich fördert zu dir.

Mein Herr und mein Gott,
nimm mich mir und gib mich ganz zu eigen dir.

The film about the life of Saint Nicholas of Flüe below, "Bruder Klaus, A Saint for Our Times" was produced by a Swiss Dominican, the late Pater Dr. Leodegar Schaller, O.P.

Father Schaller studied in Fribourg, served in Luzern, and is the author of a work on Thomistic Political Philosophy (Der Rechtsformalismus Kelsens und die thomistische Rechtsphilosophie: ein Vergleich zweier Systeme des Rechtdenkens, 1949). The film appears to have been completed in the 1980s, but some of the footage is archival and stems from earlier decades. Pope John Paul II's June of 1984 visit to Flüeli-Ranft is shown toward the end of the film (at 32 min.).

The Dominican Church in Gdansk

2011-04-04T15:24:00.005-04:00

The Dominican Church of St. Nicholas is one of the oldest churches in Gdansk. Its history begins in the 12th century. It was built at the junction of two important trade routes: the ancient mercantile path (via mercatorum) and the route leading from the royal castle of Gdansk’s estate in Pomerania. The church from the beginning served both the local population, as well as many merchants and sailors who came here from all parts of the world. St. Nicholas was known in the Middle Ages as the patron of both sailors and merchants.

On January 22, 1227, the Pomeranian prince Svatopluk entrusted the Church of St. Nicholas to the Dominicans, who had just arrived in the Polish territories. Immediately they began intensive pastoral activities both within the city and in neighboring Prussia. The church became the site of a thriving Dominican priory, which soon had a population of nearly two hundred brethren.

Gdansk passed under the dominion of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Church of St Nicholas. For the developing and prosperous city the church seemed to be too small. The Dominicans built a new church alongside the old one, which is preserved to this day.

The most dramatic period in the history of the church was the sixteenth century, the age of the Reformation. The church was repeatedly destroyed and plundered during the riots. The friars were expelled, and several of them lost their lives. In 1578 they returned to the priory and assumed the pastoral care of the Catholic population in the increasingly Protestant Gdansk.

Since that time, St. Nicholas became once again a celebrated church. Within the walls of the priory lived more and more friars, and the intellectual life and preaching of the brethren thrived. The church received new and significant appointments (the main altar, choir stalls, pulpit, organ). Visits by Polish kings on the occasion of their trips to Gdansk attest to the centrality and importance of St. Nicholas Church.

The end of the heyday of the monastery (and of the whole of Gdansk) came with the Polish partitions (1772), and then the Napoleonic wars. In 1813, as a result of Russian bombardment of the city, the priory was burned. Twenty years later, the Dominicans were forced to leave town, and eventually the ruined monastic buildings were demolished. The church was established as the Catholic parish of the city (one of four in what was then Danzig).

The diocesan priests who served the church until the outbreak of World War II were German, but their names (Maćkowski, Bruski) indicate Polish roots. Their vicars and associates were largely native Poles. German and Polish Masses were celebrated until the outbreak of World War II. The year 1945 proved to be disastrous for Gdansk. The city was 90% destroyed, and the people were expelled. All the churches downtown were reduced to rubble, except one. This sole survivor was in fact St. Nicholas. Dominicans credit Fr. Stanislaus with saving the church by convincing Russian soldiers not to destroy it.

In April 1945, the Dominicans returned to Gdansk (112 years after their departure in 1833). They had come mostly from Lviv, which had been abandoned by the Poles. They brought from there a medieval icon of Our Lady of Victory, the patroness of the city (today it is in the church).

In Gdansk, the Dominicans took up pastoral work among the increasing numbers of Poles arriving in the city. The parish, which they received, included a large part of the city. Over time, when there were more parishes, the friars could also give other types of pastoral ministry more connected with their charism.

Currently the community numbers nine Dominicans, who are busy with a variety of pastoral activities. In addition to the regular work in the parish church, where the “trademark” is the daily Mass at noon, beginning with the Angelus, there are different types of chaplaincies. For forty years the friars have been working at their Student Chaplaincy. People who lose loved ones to religious sects, as well as those who leave these sects, seek spiritual assistance and psychological support from the Dominican Center for Information on New Religious Movements and Sects. Those who hunger for religious knowledge come to the Dominican School of Faith. The Kitchen of St. Nicholas offers regular meals for the poor and homeless. The big challenge for community is the organization and construction of the Dominican Center of Saint Hyacinth.

The Church of St. Nicholas of the Dominicans in Gdansk is an extraordinary place. It is the oldest church in the city and thus one of the most important witnesses to its beautiful and dramatic history. It has survived all the turmoils of the World Wars and its rich and varied history gives it a unique atmosphere.

The Dominican Church of San Pablo Valladolid

2011-04-02T20:51:00.002-04:00

The Dominican priory of San Pablo in Valladolid dates to 1276. The film below describes the history of the Dominican conventual church and its recent restoration. In the 15th century Cardinal Fray Juan de Torquemada (1388-1468), a native of that city, restored the buildings. In recent years the Dominican priories of St. Paul and St. Gregory have merged to form one community. Images of the church can be found at this link.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 24

2011-03-23T19:22:00.004-04:00

In Lecture 24 Fr. Hinnebusch discusses Dominican History in the 19th and 20th centuries, St. Francisco Coll, O.P., the Masters General, persecution of the Church and the fate of the Dominican Order in Europe, suppression of Dominican priories by hostile secular regimes, Vincent Jandel as a reforming Master of the Order, the renewal of the Dominican common life, regular observance and apostolic preaching, Lacordaire and the renewal of the Order in France, General Chapters, legislative and constitutional reforms, new provinces, the early history of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the United States of America, the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States, Santa Sabina, the Angelicum, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

"Little Treatise on how to attend Mass" (1555)

2011-03-19T16:00:00.003-04:00

Bartolomé Carranza (1503–1576) entered the Dominican Order in 1520, studied theology at Salamanca, participated in the Council of Trent (1545-1547), and became Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain in 1557. Below is the abstract of a recent translation of his "Little Treatise on how to attend Mass," originally preached at Whitehall, London, in the first week of Lent, 1555, before King Philip I and Queen Mary I of England.

"Bartolomé Carranza de Miranda’s ‘Little Treatise on how to attend Mass’ (1555): A Translation," by John Edwards, University of Oxford, Reformation & Renaissance Review 11 (2009) 91-120.

Published Abstract: "Presented here is the first English and annotated translation of the Spanish sermon on congregational participation in the Mass delivered by the Dominican Friar, Bartolomé Carranza. It was originally preached at Whitehall, in the first week of Lent, 1555, before King Philip I and Queen Mary I of England. The text was subsequently written down by the preacher at the request of one of those present, the Duke of Medinaceli, and published in Salamanca and Antwerp. After a lengthy historical introduction, bolstered by quotations from Scripture, papal and conciliar documents, as well as from the writings of patristic and medieval theologians, the text is divided into three parts, which reflect the phases of the liturgy. The first covers the service from the entrance of the celebrating priest to the Preface of the Canon of the Mass; the second continues up to the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, and the third discusses the conclusion of the Mass. Then follows a short guide to help worshippers unfamiliar with Latin to participate as fully as possible in the service. Carranza rejects the medieval practice of bringing private prayer books to church for use during Mass, and instead urges full participation, as far as the rubrics of the liturgy permit, in the activity of the priest and his assistants at the altar. He also expresses a preference for frequent communion by the laity, which some Catholic reformers were advocating in the mid-sixteenth century. Although first preached in England, the published text was evidently as much directed at the Spanish market, where the writer evidently hoped that a reform of Catholic practice would help stave off Protestantism as well."

See also by John Edwards, "Experiencing the Mass anew in Mary I's England: Bartolomé Carranza's 'Little treatise," Reformation & Renaissance Review 9 (2007) 265-276.

John Edwards and Ronald Truman (eds). Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor. The Achievement of Friar Bartolomé Carranza. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2005.

The treatise begins in this way:

INSTRUCTION AND TEACHING ON HOW EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST HEAR MASS AND ASSIST IN THE HOLY SACRIFICE WHICH IS MADE IN IT, ACCORDING TO WHAT MASTER FRIAR BARTOLOMÉ DE MIRANDA TAUGHT AND PREACHED TO THE KING’S MAJESTY OF ENGLAND AND PRINCE OF SPAIN DON FELIPE OUR LORD, IN LONDON IN THE YEAR 1555, WRITTEN BY THE SAME [FRIAR] AT THE PETITION OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS DUKE OF MEDINACELI, DON JUAN DE LA CERDA, AND NOW REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

To the most illustrious lord Don Juan de la Cerda, duke of Medinaceli, marquis of Cogolludo, count of the Gran Puerto de Santa Maria, lord of the Towns of Deza and Enciso, [from] Fr[iar] B[artolomé], G[reeting].

Most Illustrious Lord,
In all times past, since Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to the heavens, the Sacrament of the Altar has been treated with very great respect, and Christians took great pains to know how to reverence the sacrifice which we make in the Mass. But those of us who live in this age have a much greater obligation to know this, and, knowing it, to treat it with greater respect, because of the irreverences with which many heretics are treating it now, which it is not appropriate to mention here. What we have seen with our own eyes, and heard from trustworthy people, is sufficient. And since the devil and his ministers have acted in contempt of this most holy Sacrament, more than in the times of our ancestors, we have an obligation to do more than they in reverence and veneration of it.
For this [reason], preaching this Lent in the chapel of the King of England and Prince of Spain, our lord, I decided to inform and teach the Catholics who were gathered there with His Majesty about this sacrifice [and] how it is done in all Christian churches. And your Lordship, being one of these, after having listened, has asked and demanded many times that it should be published for his instruction, and for those in his household. And because I am obliged to obey such just commands, I set to work at once to put it into writing, and thus I send it with this [letter of dedication]. But I inform your Lordship that, knowing the manner and respect with which this sacrifice must be treated, you remain obliged to treat it from now on as you understand it, and if up to now you did it well, to do it better now. And if not, it will be a greater sin.

Irish Dominicans in Rome (1924)

2011-03-17T14:26:00.000-04:00

Irish Dominicans at San Clemente in Rome, 1924. Fr. Michael Browne, O.P. (1887-1971), seated center right, joined the Dominican Order in 1903, was ordained a priest in 1910, and later became Master of the Sacred Palace (1951-1955), the 81st Master of the Order (1955-1962), the first Irish Master, and Cardinal (1962-1971). He is buried at the Dominican plot in Tallaght, Dublin. Images from Leonard E. Boyle, O.P., San Clemente Miscellany I, The Community of SS. Sisto e Clemente in Rome, 1677-1977 (Rome, 1977) 226, 242.

Irish Dominicans, San Clemente, Rome, 1878

Communicating Christ's Word and His Love

2011-03-10T11:08:00.002-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Dominic and the adventus medius, the middle coming of Christ between the Incarnation and Second Advent, referred to by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux:

"The ministry of the two great figures Francis and Dominic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was one way in which Christ entered anew into history, communicating his word and his love with fresh vigor. It was one way in which he renewed his Church and drew history toward himself."

Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, From the Epilogue to Jesus of Nazareth Part II, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (Ignatius Press, 2011) 291-92.

Ash Wednesday 1220

2011-03-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

"On Ash Wednesday, February 12, 1220 (a few days after the death of Blessed Reginald), Jordan and his two favorite companions received the Dominican habit from the hands of Father Matthew of France." Victor F. O'Daniel, O.P., The First Disciples of Saint Dominic (1928).

From the Libellus of Jordan of Saxony:

The Entrance of Brothers Jordan, Henry and Leo into the Order of Preachers

75. On Ash Wednesday, when the imposition of ashes reminds the faithful of their origin from and return to dust, we decided that a suitable way to begin the season of penance would be to fulfill the vow we had made to the Lord. Now none of our companions where we lived knew of our plan. So when Brother Henry left his lodgings and one of his companions asked him where he was going, he answered, "To Bethany." He did not understand what Henry meant, but later on he did, when he saw Henry enter Bethany, which means "the house of obedience." The three of us met at Saint-Jacques and, while the brethren were chanting "Immutemus habitu," we presented ourselves before them, much to their surprise, and, putting off the old man, we put on the new, thus suiting our actions to what they were singing.

Immutemur habitu, in cinere et cilicio: jejunemus et ploremus ante Dominum: quia multum misericors est dimittere peccata nostra Deus noster.

Let us change our garments for ashes and sackcloth: let us fast and lament before the Lord: for plenteous in mercy is our God to forgive our sins.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 23

2011-03-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

In lecture 23 Fr. Hinnebusch discusses the sources for Dominican History in the 18th and 19th centuries, new editions of the Dominican constitutions, Dominican legislation and governance, the Masters General, Gallicanism, the Habsburgs and the Dominicans, the French Revolution, and the development of the Dominican Order in the modern period.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

March 7, 1274 - Saint Thomas Aquinas

2011-03-07T19:43:00.003-05:00

Teletoulouse reports on the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Dominican Church in Toulouse.

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

2011-03-05T19:36:00.004-05:00

Scenes from the fourteenth century chapter room of the Dominican Priory of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

History: In 1219, twelve Dominicans, lead by Giovanni da Salerno, were sent to Florence from Bologna on San Domenico's initiative to engage in intense preaching activity aimed at working against the "catare" doctrines that were common in the city. The friars, after taking refuge in the San Gallo hospital, moved to the San Gallo oratory in Pian di Ripoli and later, to the hospital of the San Pancrazio church.

In 1221, they finally obtained the small church of Santa Maria Novella, which had been consecrated in 1049, and they constructed above a preexisting chapel from the 9th century.

The iconographic plan of the complex pictorial decoration in the Chapter Room may be explained by identifying the intent of the whole, which is the representation of the role of the Dominican order in the church and in society, for the salvation of man, through the perfect imitation of Christ and in virtue of the science which derives from him and the preaching of the word of God in defense of the true Faith, to martyrdom. The theme was inspired by the Specchio della vera penitenza (Mirror of True Penitence), a collection of sermons given by the prior of the monastery, Jacopo Passavanti, during Lent of 1354.

A Passion for the Truth: Fr. Kurt Pritzl, O.P.

2011-02-26T22:09:00.001-05:00

A brief excerpt from the homily by Fr. Ed Gorman, O.P., for his good friend Fr. Kurt Pritzl, O.P. (1952-2011), delivered at the funeral Mass celebrated Friday February 25, 2011 at the Basilica of the National Shrine, Washington, D.C. See The School of Philosophy site at the Catholic University of America for the full tribute to Fr. Pritzl's life and ministry.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 24

2011-02-20T19:41:00.001-05:00

In Lecture 24 Fr. Hinnebusch discusses Dominican History in the 19th and 20th centuries, St Francisco Coll y Guitart (1812-1875), the Masters General, persecution of the Church and the fate of the Dominican Order in Europe, suppression of Dominican priories by hostile secular regimes, Vincent Jandel as a reforming Master of the Order, the renewal of the Dominican common life, regular observance and apostolic preaching, Lacordaire and the renewal of the Order in France, General Chapters, legislative and constitutional reforms, new provinces, the early history of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the United States, the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States, Santa Sabina, the Angelicum, etc.

Lectures in Dominican history given in 1986 to Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph by Fr. John Frederick Hinnebusch, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. Lecture 24 of 25. Audio, 61 min.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

The Western Dominican Province (USA) 1960

2011-02-19T06:28:00.004-05:00

From Dominican Liturgy: "In 1960, the Western Dominican Province filmed one of the first "Vocation Videos" for an American religious order. The film was also meant to display to the "outside world" that it meant to live in a a Catholic monastery. The writings of Thomas Merton had already excited interest in the monastic life among Catholics and non-Catholics, and this film showcased the Dominican version of monastic life as it was lived in the 1950s at the House of Studies in California. The narrator is Fr. Finbar Hayes, O.P., who is today a member of the Dominican community at Saint Albert the Great Priory, our House of Studies, in Oakland CA."

He Exhorted the Brethren to Love Poverty

2011-02-17T17:21:00.004-05:00

"Full and authentic religious life is possible only by dependence on God’s grace and by a divine love of the life—love of the evangelical counsels, of the rule and constitutions, of the practices and way of life, and of one’s brothers and sisters in the life. It is said of Saint Dominic repeatedly in the acts of canonization that he loved poverty. [“He loved poverty very much, and zealously incited the brethren to have a similar love. Asked how he (Brother John of Spain) knew this, he answered that Brother Dominic gloried in the poorest clothing, and that, having given up all temporal things, he often exhorted the brethren to love poverty, and this is the presence of the witness.” Saint Dominic: Biographical Documents, edited with an introduction by Francis C. Lehner, O.P. (Washington, D. C.: The Thomist Press, 1964), page 117; see also pages 110; 116; 120-1; 126; 129-30; 134; and 140.]

Such an observation is appropriate to acts of canonization, for love of poverty, the active desire for and wanting of poverty, is a sign of sanctity. Already in the early Dominican community there were tendencies to eat delicacies, ride horses, acquire rich vestments, accept properties, and expand small cells, all of which Saint Dominic attempted to prevent.[Biographical Documents, pages 110; 118; 120; 126; and 143]

Perfectae Caritatis specifies the process of “a continuous return. . . to the original inspiration behind a given community” and endorses the principle that “loyal recognition and safekeeping . . . be accorded to the spirit of founders” for appropriate renewal to take place. [PC §2 (page 468). VC §93 (pages 167-8) beautifully connects the perfection of charity to saintly founders in a passage worth quoting at length: “One of the concerns frequently expressed at the Synod was that the consecrated life should be nourished from the wellspring of a sound and deep spirituality. This is a primary requirement, inscribed in the very essence of the consecrated life by the fact that, just as every baptized person, and indeed even more so, those who profess the evangelical counsels must aspire with all their strength to the perfection of charity. This commitment is clearly evidenced in the many examples of holy founders and foundresses, and of so many consecrated persons who have borne faithful witness to Christ to the point of martyrdom. To tend toward holiness: this is in summary the programme of every consecrated life, particularly in the perspective of its renewal on the threshold of the Third Millennium” (emphasis in the text).]

This process and this principle for renewal are not just for the sake of recalling ideals, as important as that is, but for rekindling the love that animated the original community through its founder, something that tends to dissipate with time and growth in numbers."

From a talk by Fr. Kurt Pritzl, O.P., entitled "Apostolic Religious Life in the Post-Vatican II Church: Ongoing Challenges of Renewal—Perfect and Imperfect Love." Father Pritzl's text is available in pdf format at the Stonehill College Symposium on Apostolic Life site (here) and will appear in an edited volume of proceedings from CUA Press later this year with the title: Apostolic Religious Life in America Today, A Response to the Crisis, ed. R. Gribble (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011).

Bede Jarrett (1881-1934) on the Art of Preaching

2011-02-07T22:49:00.002-05:00

Bede Jarrett, O.P., 1903

"Since Blackfriars was the theological study house it was the custom for the students there to have an hour’s lecture a week on preaching. This was given by Father Bede. It was the first time that he was technically a lector in the studium though it was over twenty years since he had taken his lectorate. His detailed lecture notes are still kept at Blackfriars and suggest very clearly both the theory and the practice of his own preaching. He held that the first essential in any sermon was an act not only of faith but of realisation of the subject of the sermon. It was not enough merely to believe what one preached, it had somehow to become a part of oneself. Only when it was part of oneself could it pass to become a part of others. Phrased theologically, therefore, each sermon should flow from an act of contemplation, a simplex intuitus veritatis in St Thomas’s phrase, a clear sudden vision of the truth. Literally, a good preacher is giving to others that which he himself has seen. But in sermons vision could never be enough. The second necessity must be the command of sufficient words to convey something of the quality of what is seen. This is all the more important in the tradition that Father Bede was helping to found for he was opposed to the set written compositions which had been common in his own youth. He held that spontaneity and vividness and freshness all increased when the preacher or lecturer improvised his words. He held also that once a young preacher or young lecturer had formed the habit of preaching or lecturing from a carefully written script the habit would probably stay with him all his life. He had his own suggestions as to how the Blackfriars students should increase their vocabulary. He believed, perhaps not justly, that this was normally limited. He attributed this to the scholastic training in the study houses and the use of technical Latin terms. He proposed that every student should find at least one English author whom he really enjoyed and read him constantly. It made no difference, he said, whether this author was Lord Macaulay or P. G. Wodehouse.

Only it was not enough to possess vision and some mastery of words. A sermon was useless unless audible. In consequence many pages of his note book are filled with suggestions on pronunciation and on voice production and the use of the sentence and the paragraph in preaching. He realised very clearly that the methods of improvisation he encouraged had their particular dangers. It was not enough to see and to speak and to be heard; the sermon had also to be shaped. He urged that a detailed scheme should be drawn up and memorised; such a scheme could be plotted in skeleton form on the back of a postcard or an envelope, but it must contain a development of ideas. He recommended that it should be written out clearly and in some detail. This had been his own practice as a young man when he first began to preach without a script...

In his own life time he held a recognised position as the greatest preacher in Catholic England. In the light of his own teaching it is easy to understand the reason. Behind all his sermons there lay a personal vision and a personal love. He always preached to the individual: it made no difference to him whether these were many or were few. He would seem to put the same care and thought and vision into each of his sermons and his lectures for with him the lectures were in fact sermons. It appeared to make no difference whether these were to be delivered in Westminster Cathedral, or the Albert Hall or Our Lady of Victories, New York, or in some small church or class room. The author of the obituary in The Times noted that “he has been called the best Roman Catholic preacher in this country, and he was perhaps the most popular English preacher in the United States, his sermons being marked by their intellectual quality, their appositeness to the times and their incisiveness”. All this seems true enough. Much of his success as a preacher was due to his clarity of thought and of word and of voice. But it was Father Vincent McNabb who perhaps came closest to the secret of his influence: “His light was a spiritual flame that fed itself, increasing day by day–but alas a bodily flame that fed upon itself until the day when it made an end to its powers. I need not say that if he was on fire it was with the master-flame of love.”

From Bede Jarrett of the Order of Preachers, by Kenneth Wykeham-George, O.P., and Gervase Mathew, O.P. (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1952) 140-142.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 21

2011-02-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

In lecture 21 Fr. Hinnebusch speaks about the Dominican response to the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent, the Master of the Sacred Palace - the Pope's theologian, Dominican saints of the 16th and 17th centuries, reform movements in the Dominican Order, the curia of the Master General, the role of the General Chapters of the Order of Preachers, Dominican presence in the Holy Land and in Greece, the Dominican Provinces in Eastern Europe, Dominicans and the study of Scripture and Theology, etc

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Saint Zdislava of Lemberk (ca. 1220-1252)

2011-02-03T20:53:00.003-05:00

"Look to the shining testimony of Saint Zdislava, mother of a family, rich in works of religion and works of mercy."

Pope John Paul II, Brno, 27 September 2009.

S. Zdislavae de Moravia, Matrisfamilias, Die 4 ianuarii

St. Zdislava was a noblewoman, born in Brno (now in the Czech Republic) in the 13th century. She was the mother of a family and Dominican tertiary and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1995. After an early attempt at eremitical life, she returned to society and later married Duke Havel of Lemberk. She raised four children in the castle of Lemberk, but her care extended to all the needy of the land. When the Polish missionaries St. Hyacinth and Bl. Ceslaus arrived at Lemberk, they brought news of the Order of Preachers, founded some years before by St. Dominic. She became an early lay Dominican. (The Third Order of St. Dominic was not formally organized until 1285.) Spurred by her new apostolic calling, St. Zdislava urged her husband to build a hospice for poor pilgrims. She herself funded the construction of a church, the Priory of St. Laurence – even visiting the site at night, to move beams and stones into place without others knowing. She was a frequent communicant, a visionary, a catechist, a healer, and an advocate for prisoners. St. Zdislava died in 1252 and is buried in the church she built, now called the Church of Sts. Laurence and Zdislava, in the Czech village of Jablonné v Podjestedi.

St. Albert the Great Lecture (2010)

2011-02-02T14:27:00.002-05:00

The annual St. Albert the Great lecture (2010) at the Dominican Parish of St Vincent Ferrer (Manhattan) was covered by NETNY on the Catholic News magazine “Currents”. The lecture dealt with Hatred and Forgiveness, and was delivered by Dr. Paul Vitz in November of last year. The entire lecture (video and audio formats) is available here. From the CSVF blog.

Medieval Dominican Architecture in Oxford

2011-01-31T21:33:00.000-05:00

Visit the Province of St. Joseph site to see this documentary on the architectural history of medieval Dominican and Franciscan priories in Oxford: "Great Houses Make Not Men Holy."

St Martin de Porres (1579-1639)

2011-01-29T20:11:00.001-05:00

Father Thomas McGlynn, O.P.

Película de la vida de Fray Martin de Porres, O.P., filmada en 1961 y dirigida por Ramón Torrado.

Fray Martín de Porres, el santo de la escoba, fue un ejemplo de vida cristiana en favor del prójimo, a quien aliviava tanto sus penurias físicas como económicas con profunda dedicación y amor.

Martín De Porras Velásquez nació a fines de 1579, en el barrio de San Sebastián. Sus padres fuerón Juan De Porras y Ana Velásquez.

Martín residio en Quito (Ecuador) sus primeros 5 años de infancia. Aprendio el oficio de boticario, barbero y herbolario.

En 1594, cuando Martín contaba con sólo 15 años de edad ingreso como aspirante a donado a la ordén de los Dominicos y después de 9 años profesó sus votos religiosos.

Fallecio el 3 de Noviembre de 1639 a la edad de 60 años.

Fue beatificado en 1837 por Gregorio XVI y canonizado el 6 de mayo de 1962 por el Papa Juan XXIII.

The American Section of the Leonine Commission

2011-01-28T09:45:00.001-05:00

The American Section, Washington, D.C., 1989

Pope Leo XIII entrusted the Dominican Order with the task of editing a critical edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas in Latin. Fr. John F. Hinnebusch, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. describes the work of the American section of the Leonine Commission. Audio, 14 min. Recorded Oct. 25, 2007.

Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P. & the Ecole Biblique

2011-01-27T14:03:00.002-05:00

L’interprétation de la Bible passe par la figure du grand scientifique dominicain Marie-Joseph LAGRANGE, qui a fondé en 1890 l’École Biblique de Jérusalem, le plus ancien centre de recherches bibliques et archéologiques de Terre Sainte. Son combat fut de vérifier, par une approche scientifique, la validité des textes bibliques. Ici, chercheurs et étudiants du monde entier continuent d'étudier, d'interpréter et de traduire les écrits bibliques. From Le Jour du Seigneur:

Quitman Francis Beckley, O.P., (1891-1963)

2011-01-26T23:12:00.003-05:00

Quitman Francis Beckley was born at Frederick, Maryland, on February 5, 1891, a son of Quitman Shields Beckley, who was captain in the Spanish-American War, and Caroline (Kreh) Beckley. His great-grandfather Captain Gabriel Beckley, was commander of the Frederick United Guards, afterwards called the Frederick Rifleman. After receiving his academic education at Saint Charles’ College, 1907-1908, Mr. Beckley continued his studies at the Dominican House of Studies and at the Catholic University of America between 1910 and 1917 (Bachelor of Canon Law, 1915), taking postgraduate work in the social sciences the final two years of his university residence and receiving his degree of Doctor of Laws from Providence College, at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1928 (hon. LL.D.). Having entered the Dominican Order on November 25, 1908, and being professed, December 3, 1909, he was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church by Archbishop Bonzano in the chapel of the Dominican House of Studies on June 23, 1915. He was special lecturer, Westminster Choir College of Music, and was frequently called upon to address various men’s organizations.

When the United States entered the First World War, he was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Navy, on June 26, 1917, and was assigned duty with the Atlantic Fleet, subsequently being transferred at his own request, on April 2, 1918, to the United States Marine Corps, and, somewhat later assigned to the 3d Replacement Battalion, Infantry, of the Marine Corps, for duty in France. Thus, from April to December of 1918, he was on active duty with the A. E. F. at the front, being gassed (Battle of Belleau Wood) and shell-shocked while carrying on his duties. After two months of service, late in 1918, also with the Graves Registration Service, United States Army Headquarters, Paris, France, he was once again assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet, and remained with that assignment until July 9, 1919, when he resigned from the Navy. On November 19, 1920, he was re-commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the Chaplains Corps, of the United States Navy Reserve Force, by President Wilson. On January 6, 1921, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Chaplain Corps of the Ohio Naval Militia by Governor Cox.

Upon his return to civil life in 1919, he became a member of the faculty of Aquinas College at Columbus, Ohio, in September of 1919, but in 1922 he was assigned as curate and later as pastor of Saint Mary’s Church, Johnson City, Tennessee, where he remained until 1923, then becoming a member of the Western Mission Band of the Dominican Order, with headquarters at Minneapolis. Three years later, after serving as curate at Saint Mary’s Priory, at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1926 he became associated with the Eastern Mission Band of the Dominican Order. He held this position until September of 1928, when he was assigned to his present duties as director of Catholic Activities and as Catholic Chaplain at Princeton University. He served at Princeton for over 15 years. In connection with his work in the academic field he has taken part in academic discussions with distinguished clergymen of other denominations, especially in the New England States. The first religious regularly commissioned in the United States Navy, the Rev. Father Beckley was twice cited in orders of the French Army for his services in France, and was authorized to wear the Fourragère aux couleurs de la Croix de guerre. He is a former trustee and vice-president of the board of trustees of the Newman School at Lakewood, New Jersey, a member of the original faculty and a trustee until 1926 of Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island, a member of the Medieval Academy of America, and a contributor of articles to the “Commonwealth.” Supporting his associations of the First World War by membership in Princeton Post, American Legion Department of New Jersey, he has served the post as chaplain in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1934, and 1935, while also being commander of the Post in 1932. He was appointed auxiliary chaplain to armed forces on Princeton Campus, April 2, 1943 by Abp. Spellman. Father Beckley died on May 18, 1963, and is buried in the Dominican plot at Mount Olivet in Washington, D.C.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 20

2011-01-23T15:37:00.002-05:00

In this lecture Fr. Hinnebusch speaks about the development of the third order and confraternities, Dominican Sisters, devotion to the Rosary, the revival of the Dominican Order in the 15th century, the Dominican Masters General, the Dominican response to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the transition to the early modern period as a pivotal turning point, political developments, the enlightenment, the scientific revolution, and the development of the modern mind, rationalism, relations with national monarchs, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Père Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P.

2011-01-17T13:57:00.008-05:00

La vie et les œuvres du Père Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P.

For more information on the cause of beatification of Father Lagrange see the Province of St. Joseph site or the site: mj-lagrange.org.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 19

2011-01-16T11:04:00.004-05:00

In lecture 19 Fr. Hinnebusch focuses on the wisdom of the Dominican ideal, the responsibility of the individual Dominican to pursue study and personal sanctity despite adverse circumstances, renewal and reform of the Dominican Order in the 15th century, reform provinces, common observance and strict observance, Dominican sanctity and Dominican saints, corporate poverty, the end of the medieval period in the Dominican Order, changes in the understanding of mendicancy in 1475, etc.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

"To read, joy; to think, delight; to write, torture"

2011-01-15T09:26:00.002-05:00

To my bretheren of Le Saulchoir

Foreword by Marie-Humbert Vicaire, O.P.

Father Mandonnet died January 4, 1936, bearing away with him the treasure of knowledge he had amassed on the thought, the men, and the institutions of the thirteenth century ..... It was not by chance that Father Mandonnet died without achieving this work. For a long time those about him were aware, and he was aware – because he knew himself – that he would not write it. At the close of his life, talking with some of his "petits fréres," he accused himself of idleness. His bibliography dispenses us from having to absolve him of this accusation. As a matter of fact, he had even physically a kind of distaste, which age had deepened, for the toil of writing. What is meant would be appreciated if only he could have been seen at his desk manipulating a heavy fountain pen in his awkward fingers. One day on a slip of paper he wrote the whole secret: "To read, joy; to think, delight; to write, torture."

It was all that. If he detested writing – each of his books was forced from him – he loved to read and think. When his Siger de Brabant appeared, critics praised, among other features, the bibliographical knowledge revealed in it. Father Mandonnet had not acquired that knowledge on school benches, but in reading with industry and intelligence. One day a brother who brought some books from a library found him in bed sick. Passing through the room again some minutes later, he saw the sick man seated at the table in his bathrobe, reading in spite of a fever. Father Mandonnet examined whole collections from end to end. Never did he open a book merely to look for a reference; he read it completely, or rather he had already done so. In this way, going straight to the point, he read and annotated the numerous volumes of medieval history which he had collected, one by one, from all the rare-book dealers of Europe.

From the foreword to the book St. Dominic and His Work by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., an English translation published in 1944 of the original St. Dominique, l'idée, l'homme, et l'oeuvre by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., (1858-1936) with notes and critical studies by Marie-Humbert Vicaire, O.P., (1906-1993) and Reginald Ladner, O.P., published posthumously in 1938 by Desclée de Brouwer & Cie, Bruges, Belgium. Photo courtesy of the University of Fribourg, Les professeurs d'histoire de l'Eglise de la faculté de théologie de l'Université de Fribourg.

Dominican House of Studies (1921)

2011-01-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

Visit the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph website for newly-discovered photos of DHS from the 1920s that offer a fascinating glimpse into the past.

Aquinas on the Last Day

2011-01-12T20:00:00.002-05:00

On the Last Day, The Time of the Resurrection of the Dead according to Thomas Aquinas

Fr. Bryan Kromholtz, O.P.
Collection: Studia Friburgensia, vol. 110
Academic Press Fribourg, 2010.
548 pages, broché, Fr. 92.- / EUR 68.-
ISBN 978-2-8271-1683-6

When will the resurrection of the dead occur? Over the past several decades, some theologians have called for a reconsideration of what had become the traditional response to this question, that the resurrection would occur "on the last day" (John 6:40), at the end of the world. They propose instead that the time of the resurrection be identified with the individual's moment of death ("resurrection in death"). However, St. Thomas Aquinas consistently taught that the resurrection will occur when Christ returns at the end of the world, for everyone at the same time. In this, Thomas highlights the theological significance of human persons' connections with Jesus Christ, with the created world, and with one another. In On the Last Day Bryan Kromholtz explains how Thomas's attention to these three dimensions (Christ, cosmos, and community) anticipates many current concerns and can contribute to a better understanding of resurrection for today, one that more fully accounts for the Christological, corporeal, cosmological, and ecclesiological aspects of eschatology.

Fr. Bryan Kromholtz, OP, is Assistant Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California. He completed his doctoral studies in theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, in 2008.

Lawrence Dewan, O.P. on St. Thomas Aquinas

2011-01-12T15:46:00.004-05:00

Father Dewan (audio) from the Summer 2010 Warsaw Conference - St. Thomas and Philosophia Perennis:

Lectures in Dominican History Part 18

2011-01-12T15:30:00.001-05:00

In lecture 18 Fr. Hinnebusch continues a survey of the history of the Dominican Order from the time of the death of St. Dominic to the modern period (lectures 16-25). Topics include: the decline of fervor in the middle of the 14th century, the corruption of ideals, renewal and revival, the relationship of the Order of Preachers to the Pope and the Holy See, the freedom and self-government of the Dominican Order, Pope Benedict XII's clash with the Master of the Order in the early 14th century, relationships with monarchs and local rulers, mendicancy and anti-clericalism, the plague, the Western Schism in 1378, St. Vincent Ferrer and the Avignon Court, Raymond of Capua, the flowering of mysticism, and the reform and renewal of the Dominican Order in the 14th and 15th centuries.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 17

2011-01-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

In lecture 17 Fr. Hinnebusch continues a survey of the history of the Dominican Order from the time of the death of St. Dominic to the modern period (lectures 16-25), including a discussion of the early masters general, especially Humbert of Romans, the role of theological study in the Dominican Order, doctrinal preaching, papal exemption and privileges, struggles of secular clerics against the monks and friars, the introduction of Aristotle in Paris, and the growth and spread of the Order of Preachers in the 13th and 14th centuries.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Dominican Friars at Catholic University (1911)

2011-01-04T09:49:00.003-05:00

The recently published illustrated history of The Catholic University of America by Robert Malesky (Arcadia, 2010) contains several archival photos featuring Dominicans from the House of Studies. The image above, taken on October 12, 1911, shows a procession from McMahon Hall to the site where the cornerstone of Gibbons Hall would be blessed by Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921), Archbishop of Baltimore. A number of Dominican friars from the House of Studies can be seen leading the procession. The book includes photographs of the Dominican House of Studies and of Dominican faculty at the university.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 16

2011-01-04T09:33:00.001-05:00

In this lecture Fr. Hinnebusch begins a survey of the history of the Dominican Order from the time of the death of St. Dominic to the modern period (lectures 16-25). The lecture includes a discussion of the early masters general, Jordan of Saxony, Raymond of Pennafort, John the Teuton, Humbert of Romans, John of Vercelli, the Dominican general chapters, and the growth and spread of the Order of Preachers in the late 13th century, the codification of the Dominican rite, and the Golden Legend.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Dominican Friars in the Baltics (1937)

2011-01-03T13:57:00.005-05:00

Dominican Friars in the Baltic Region 1937

From the history of the Dominicans in the Baltic Countries at http://baltic.op.org: "In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, in the three free and independent Baltic Republics, there were Dominican priories, many brothers, and full churches. In 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was one known priest and one underground priest. Churches were closed. The practice of religion was forbidden and penalized."

History of the Dominicans in Lithuania:

Lectures in Dominican History Part 15

2011-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

In lecture 15 Fr. Hinnebusch continues the discussion of the life of St. Dominic, treating Dominican apostolic preaching, theological study, the chapter of 1220, the Dominican rule, dispensation for preaching, study, and the good of souls, on the rule not binding under sin, the essential and distinctive features of the Dominican Order, balancing choir and active apostolate, corporate poverty and itinerancy, portable altars, the last years of St. Dominic's life, new foundations in Germany, Dacia, Poland, etc., San Sisto, Santa Sabina, and the governance of the Order of Preachers.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

The Dominican House of Studies Chapel 1917

2010-12-31T22:30:00.003-05:00


Dominican House of Studies Chapel 1917

This image of the Dominican House of Studies chapel has a recent label which identifies the year the picture was taken as 1917. Its possible that the liturgy shown is actually from the November 1916 celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the approval of the Order of Preachers, an event marked on November 14, 1916 (Cardinals' Day at CUA) with a Solemn Mass at the Dominican House of Studies chapel. The Mass was sung by James Cardinal Gibbons and the sermon was delivered by Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University of America. The Catholic University Bulletin of November 1916 (see images below) described the event and printed the full text of Bishop Shahan's sermon.

The Dominican Lay Brother (1921)

2010-12-29T16:35:00.006-05:00

This image was taken at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., ca. 1920, and appears in the 1921 book by Father V. F. O'Daniel, O.P., The Dominican Lay Brother (New York, 1921). This book is available in full as a pdf from Google books. Current information about the Dominican Cooperator Brother vocation can be had from the Province of St. Joseph.

Lectures in Dominican History Part 14

2010-12-28T11:45:00.000-05:00

In part 14 Father Hinnebusch continues the treatment of the life of St. Dominic, the friars and the local clerics, the Dominicans as a universal order, St. Dominic in Paris, Pope Honorius and St. Dominic, reform of the nuns in Rome, St. Sixtus, the rapid growth of the Dominican Order, German and Swedish foundations, the Dominican chapter as a novum, Dominican superiors, local priors, priors provincial, and the powers of the Master General.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

"A Star in St. Dominic's American Crown of Glory": John Antoninus Rochford, O.P.

2010-12-26T20:25:00.002-05:00

Fr. V. F. O'Daniel, O.P. provides the following biographical sketch of Fr. John Antoninus Rochford, O.P. (1834-1896), preacher and Prior Provincial (1873-1877) of the Province of Saint Joseph, considered by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill to be a co-founder of their community due to his active encouragement of their foundation (1876). Fr. Coffey's Pictorial History of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph (1946) describes Father Rochford as "A star in St. Dominic's American crown of glory."

From Victor Francis O’Daniel, O.P., The Dominican Province of Saint Joseph. Historico-Biographical Studies (New York: Holy Name Society, 1942): "Father John Antoninus Rochford was born in Alexandria, Virginia, January 27, 1834, and was one of the large family of Bartholomew and Jane (Carne) Rochford. He began his education in his home town, and was sent to Georgetown College (now University) when about twelve years of age. From there he went to Saint Joseph’s College, Perry County, Ohio. While at this latter institution he entered the Order in the adjacent priory of the same name, where he made his religious profession on December 3, 1854. As was then the usual routine, he helped with the teaching in the college and at the same time prosecuted his own ecclesiastical studies. Through industry combined with a very bright mind he acquitted himself with great credit both as student and professor. Bishop James Whelan, coadjutor to Nashville, ordained him at Saint Joseph’s on July 10, 1859. Shortly after ordination the promising young priest was sent to the college at Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. There he taught, amongst other things, music and English literature. But in 1860, Father Michael D. Lilly having resigned his position as president of Saint Joseph’s College, in Ohio, Father Rochford was brought back there to take his place. However, as has been seen, this educational institution was suspended the next year supposedly for the duration of the Civil War.

From Fr. Coffey's Pictorial History

    Father Rochford was then assigned to Saint Peter’s London, Ontario, Canada, which had just been taken over by the province. Here he remained until 1864, towards the end being superior of the house and vicar general of the Diocese of Sandwich. (This diocese was first called the Diocese of London, then changed to the Diocese of Sandwich, when Bishop Peter A. Pinsonneault had Sandwich made the episcopal seat. Later the Diocese of London was restored under Bishop John Walsh.) Then he appears to have spent his time between Saint Joseph’s and Zanesville, Ohio, until late in 1861, when he was sent to Saint Peter’s, Memphis, Tennessee. In 1868 he became pastor of Holy Trinity, Somerset, Ohio.

    But before the close of 1869, we find him associated with Bishop Sylvester H. Rosecrans, and residing with him in Columbus. The bishop obtained this permission from Rome that the talented and exemplary Friar Preacher might aid him with the ministry in the episcopal city and with the teaching in Saint Aloysius’ College and Seminary. The two lived at Saint Patrick’s, now a house of the province. Though it is not so recorded in the Catholic Directory, Father Rochford is said to have been also a vicar general at this time. Late in 1872 or early in 1873, as the bishop no longer needed his services so badly, the Dominican was assigned to Saint Vincent Ferrer’s, New York City, whence he gave much of his time to the missions. There he was, the reader will recall, when the chapter of 1873 elected him provincial.

    During his four years of office he made Saint Vincent Ferrer’s his home. In 1878 he was appointed pastor and superior at Saint Dominic’s, Washington, D. C. There he built the present priory standing between the church and the school. He remained in Washington for three years after ceasing to be superior. In 1884 he was elected prior of Saint Louis Bertrand’s, Louisville, Kentucky, and in 1887 became pastor and superior at Saint Antoninus’, Newark, New Jersey. From 1890 to 1892 he resided at Saint Mary's, New Haven, Connecticut. Thence until the end Saint Vincent Ferrer’s, New York City, was his home. His health had been declining for a number of years. He died, of general debility and hardening of the arteries, in Saint Vincent’s Hospital, New York City, October 5, 1896, and was buried in the Dominican plot in Calvary Cemetery Long Island City, New York. As was but natural, the demise of so good and so great a man caused profound grief both in the Order and among-his wide circle of friends and admirers.


*Fr. Rochford as member of one of the early mission bands, ca. 1865. Image from Fr. Vidmar's history: Fr. Fenwick's "Little American Province".*

For many years Father Rochford had been one of the outstanding priests of the country as well as among his confrères. He was a splendid physical specimen of manhood, tall, erect, and agile–ever active and zealous in the cause of religion. He was an excellent theologian and English scholar, a fair poet, and one of our foremost pulpit orators. Nothing daunted him when there was question of saving souls. Our readers will recall how he went through the epidemic of yellow fever that visited Memphis in 1867. The documents in the archives of the Dominican Master General, Rome, show that he was considered for a miter more than once. Well might it have been so, for he was eminently fitted for the position. In whatever charge that was entrusted to him he acquitted himself admirably. He had rare and varied ability. His sermons and lectures, which he delivered in many places, were said to have been gems in thought, order, expression, and delivery. Those who lived under him ever extolled him as an ideal superior–kindly, gentle, considerate, exemplary. One need not say more."

Lectures in Dominican History Part 13

2010-12-23T16:27:00.003-05:00

Lecture 13 continues the discussion of the life of Saint Dominic, the universal preaching mission, preaching for the remission of sins, relations with the local ordinary and with local clerics, papal approvals of the Dominican Order, the organizational genius of St. Dominic as founder, Dominicans as papal preachers, the Dominican abbot Matthew of France, communal poverty and mendicancy, the dispersion of the brethren on August 15, 1217, and theological study in Paris.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.
Mp3 format

Lectures in Dominican History Part 12

2010-12-21T20:28:00.014-05:00

Lecture 12 continues the treatment of the life of Saint Dominic, with a focus on his vision of the apostolic life, his preaching as a papal legate, itinerancy, communal poverty, theological study, the combating of heresy, relationship with local bishops, foundation in Toulouse, the foundation of the Order of Friars Preachers ca. 1215, the rule of St. Augustine, approval by Pope Honorius III in 1216 (December 22, 1216, Religiosam Vitam), 1217, and 1220.

All 25 of Father Hinnebusch's audio lectures are now available in full on this site (and on Blip.tv) and on iTunes.

Mp3 format.

Father Hinnebusch receives relatives from Germany and makes the local Dorstener Zeitung:

St. Thomas Aquinas on the Election of Israel

2010-12-18T22:10:00.001-05:00

The Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology 20th Annual Aquinas Lecture: "Christ and Israel: An Unresolved Question in Catholic Theology" presented by Bruce Marshall, Ph.D., on March 3rd, 2010.

Dr. Marshall is the author of Trinity and Truth (Cambridge, 2000), Christology in Conflict (Blackwell, 1987) and over fifty articles in journals such as The Thomist, Pro Ecclesia, and Modern Theology. He is currently writing a book about St. Thomas's understanding of the Jewish people and its relevance to contemporary Jewish-Catholic dialogue.