Saint Dominic

St. Dominic de Guzman, the Patron Saint of this College, is a model for teachers and students to emulate, for his was a life dedicated to prayer, study and service. Born in an aristocratic family at Caleruega, Spain, around 1170-72, Dominic was brought up in a pious atmosphere.

As a young man at the University of Palencia he lived a life of intense prayer and study and had a great love for the poor.Even as he sought to alleviate their pain and hunger,he recognized a deeper hunger in men and women - the hunger for God and Truth - which he wanted to satisfy. So he became a priest and then a Canon Regular in the Cathedral Chapter of Osma.

It was a very turbulent period in church history, the Albigensian heresy being widespread in Southern France. The existing ecclesiastical structures were inadequate to contend with it. Dominic, therefore, took it as a challenge and decided to dedicate his life to the ministry of preaching. He organized his fellow preachers in the new religious order at Toulouse in 1215 and it was formally approved by Pope Honorius III on December 22, 1216. His own love of prayer and study, his zeal for the salvation of souls, and his belief in apostolic poverty became the foundation stones of his Order which was dispersed throughout Europe in 1217.

The saying about St. Dominic that he either spoke with God or about God' exemplifies the holiness of his life. He died at Bologna on August 6, 1221.

Our times are not all that different in their uncertainty and chaos from Dominic's time. We recognise in our day a similar kind of hunger for spirituality and meaning especially among the youth. The restless youth of today can draw inspiration from the example of St. Dominic who sent his friars out two by two to the centres of thought - the universities which were being founded throughout Europe - so that they could both find truth among the prevalent currents of thought and transform themselves as the bearers of truth.