Editing Dominican Order

{{redirect|Black Friars|the Black Monks|Benedictines||Blackfriars (disambiguation)}}

| native_name = Ordo Praedicatorum

| native_name_lang = la

| formation = {{ubl|1206 (for women)|1215 (for men)|{{start date|December 22, 1216}} (of [[pontifical right]])}}

| founding_location = {{ubl|[[Prouille]], France (for women)|[[Toulouse]], France (for men)}}

| leader_title = Master of the Order

| leader_name = Fr. [[Gerard Timoner III]], OP

| footnotes ='''Motto:''' {{lang|la|Laudare, benedicere, praedicare}} ('To praise, to bless, to preach'){{pb}}'''Patron Saints:''' {{ubl|[[Saint Dominic]]|[[Mary Magdalene]]|[[Catherine of Siena]]}}

[[File:Figur Alte Uni Marburg.jpg|thumb|A figure depicting the term {{lang|la|domini canes}} ('[[hound]]s of the [[Jesus|lord]]') since the [[Medieval Inquisition|Inquisition]] in the 13th century,{{efn| name="DC"}}{{sfn|Van Helden|1995}} on a corner of a former Dominican monastery (before the Reformation), Old University, [[Marburg]], Germany.]]

The '''Order of Preachers''' ({{lang-la|Ordo Praedicatorum}}; abbreviated '''OP'''), commonly known as the '''Dominican Order''', is a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[mendicant order]] of [[pontifical right]] that was founded in France by a [[Castilians|Castilian]] priest named [[Saint Dominic|Dominic de Guzmán]]. It was approved by [[Pope Honorius III]] via the [[papal bull]] {{Lang|la|[[Religiosam vitam]]}} on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as '''Dominicans''', generally display the letters ''OP'' after their names, standing for {{Lang|la|Ordinis Praedicatorum}}, meaning 'of the Order of Preachers'. Membership in the order includes [[friar]]s,{{efn| name="friar"}} [[nuns]], [[Religious sister (Catholic)|active sisters]], and [[Laity|lay]] or secular Dominicans (formerly known as [[Third Order of Saint Dominic|tertiaries]]). More recently, there have been a growing number of associates of the religious sisters who are unrelated to the tertiaries.

Founded to preach the [[gospel]] and to oppose [[heresy]], the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organisation placed it at the forefront of the intellectual life of the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}} The order is famed for its intellectual tradition by having produced many leading [[theologian]]s and philosophers.{{sfn|Marshall|2011}} In 2018, there were 5,747 Dominican friars, including 4,299 priests.<ref name='ch' /> The order is headed by the [[Master of the Order of Preachers|master of the order]] who, {{As of|2022|lc=y}}, is [[Gerard Timoner III]].{{sfn|Lomonaco|2019}} [[Mary Magdalene]] and [[Catherine of Siena]] are the [[patron saint|co-patronesses]] of the order.

[[File:Doctrina-cristiana.jpg|thumb|right|Saint Dominic on the front cover of {{lang|la|[[Doctrina Christiana]]}} catechism in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] with an eight-pointed star (a symbol of the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]]) over his head. Woodcut cover. Printed in Manila in 1593.]]

The Dominican Order came into being during the Middle Ages at a time when men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a [[cloister]]. Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this ideal emerged two orders of mendicant friars – one, the Friars Minor, led by [[Francis of Assisi]]; the other, the Friars Preachers, led by [[Saint Dominic|Dominic de Guzmán]]. Like his contemporary, Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization, and the quick growth of the Dominicans and [[Franciscans]] during their first century of existence confirms that conditions were favorable for the growth of the [[Mendicant orders|orders of mendicant friars]]. The Dominicans and other mendicant orders may have been an adaptation to the rise of the profit economy in medieval Europe.{{sfn|Little|1983}}

Dominic sought to establish a new kind of order, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders like the [[Benedictine]]s to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. The Order of Preachers was founded in response to a perceived need for informed preaching.<ref name="dominicanfriars.org" /> Dominic's new order was to be trained to preach in the [[vernacular]] languages.

The Order of Preachers was approved in December 1216 and January 1217 by [[Pope Honorius III]] in the [[papal bull]]s {{Lang|la|[[Religiosam vitam]]}} and {{lang|la|[[Nos attendentes]]}}. On January 21, 1217, Honorius issued the bull {{lang|la|Gratiarum omnium}}{{sfn|Duggan|Greatrex|Bolton|Boyle|2005|p=202}} recognizing Dominic's followers as an order dedicated to study and universally authorized to preach, a power formerly reserved to local episcopal authorization.{{sfn|Renard|1977|p=}}

Along with charity, the other concept that most defines the work and spirituality of the order is study, the method most used by the Dominicans in working to defend the church against the perils it faced. In Dominic's thinking, it was impossible for men to preach what they did not or could not understand. On August 15, 1217, Dominic dispatched seven of his followers to the great university center of Paris to establish a [[priory]] focused on study and preaching. The Convent of St. Jacques would eventually become the order's first {{lang|la|[[studium generale]]}}. Dominic was to establish similar foundations at other university towns of the day, [[Bologna]] in 1218, [[Palencia]] and [[Montpellier]] in 1220, and [[Oxford]] just before his death in 1221.{{sfn|Weisheipl|1960}} The women of the order also established schools for the children of the local gentry.

In 1219 Pope Honorius III invited Dominic and his companions to take up residence at the ancient Roman [[basilica]] of [[Santa Sabina]], which they did by early 1220. Before that time the friars had only a temporary residence in Rome at the convent of [[San Sisto Vecchio]] which Honorius III had given to Dominic circa 1218 intending it to become a convent for a reformation of nuns at Rome under Dominic's guidance. In May 1220 at Bologna the order's first [[Chapter (religion)#General chapter|General Chapter]] mandated that each new priory of the order maintain its own {{lang|la|studium conventuale}}, thus laying the foundation of the Dominican tradition of sponsoring widespread institutions of learning.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|loc=Ch 1}}{{sfn|Hastings|Selbie|Gray|1919|p=701}} The official foundation of the Dominican convent at Santa Sabina with its {{lang|la|studium conventuale}} occurred with the legal transfer of property from Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on June 5, 1222.{{sfn|Mandonnet|1944|loc=Ch. III, note 50}} This {{lang|la|studium}} was transformed into the order's first {{lang|la|studium provinciale}} by [[Thomas Aquinas]] in 1265. Part of the curriculum of this {{lang|la|studium}} was relocated in 1288 at the {{lang|la|studium}} of [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]] which in the 16th century world be transformed into the College of Saint Thomas ({{lang-la|Collegium Divi Thomæ}}). In the 20th century the college would be relocated to the convent of [[Santi Domenico e Sisto|Saints Dominic and Sixtus]] and would be transformed into the [[Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas|Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'']].

The Dominican friars quickly spread, including to England, where they appeared in [[Oxford]] in 1221.{{sfn|Morgan|2010|p=748}} In the 13th century the order reached all classes of Christian society, fought [[Christian heresy|heresy]], [[Schism (religion)|schism]], and [[paganism]] by word and book, and by its missions to the north of Europe, to Africa, and Asia passed beyond the frontiers of [[Christendom]]. Its schools spread throughout the entire church; its doctors wrote monumental works in all branches of knowledge, including the extremely important [[Albertus Magnus]] and [[Thomas Aquinas]]. Its members included popes, cardinals, bishops, legates, inquisitors, confessors of princes, ambassadors, and {{lang|la|paciarii}} (enforcers of the peace decreed by popes or councils).{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}}

The order's origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its later development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate; many years after Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first [[Spanish Inquisition|Grand Inquistor of Spain]], [[Tomás de Torquemada]], would be drawn from the Dominican Order. The order was appointed by [[Pope Gregory IX]] the duty to carry out the [[Inquisition]].{{sfn|Van Helden|1995}} Torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but as a means of eliciting the truth. In his papal bull {{lang|la|[[Ad extirpanda]]}} of 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorised the Dominicans' use of torture under prescribed circumstances.{{sfn|Blötzer|1910}}

At the same time the order found itself face to face with the [[Renaissance]]. It struggled against pagan tendencies in [[Renaissance humanism]], in Italy through Dominici and Savonarola, in Germany through the theologians of [[Cologne]] but it also furnished humanism with such advanced writers as [[Francesco Colonna (writer)|Francesco Colonna]] (probably the writer of the {{lang|la|[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]}}) and [[Matteo Bandello]]. Many Dominicans took part in the artistic activity of the age, the most prominent being [[Fra Angelico]] and [[Fra Bartolomeo]].{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}}

Although Dominic and the early brethren had instituted female Dominican houses at Prouille and other places by 1227, houses of women attached to the Order became so popular that some of the friars had misgivings about the increasing demands of female religious establishments on their time and resources. Nonetheless, women's houses dotted the countryside throughout Europe. There were 74 Dominican female houses in Germany, 42 in Italy, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 6 in Bohemia, 3 in Hungary, and 3 in Poland.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=13}} Many of the German religious houses that lodged women had been home to communities of women, such as [[Beguines]], that became Dominican once they were taught by the traveling preachers and put under the jurisdiction of the Dominican authoritative structure. A number of these houses became centers of study and mystical spirituality in the 14th century, as expressed in works such as the [[sister-books]]. There were 157 nunneries in the order by 1358. After that year, the number lessened considerably due to the Black Death.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=14}}

Women could be professed to the Dominican religious life at the age of 13. The formula for profession contained in the Constitutions of Montargis Priory (1250) requires that nuns pledge obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin, their prioress and her successors according to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the institute of the order, until death. The clothing of the sisters consisted of a white tunic and scapular, a leather belt, a black mantle, and a black veil. Candidates to profession were questioned to reveal whether they were actually married women who had merely separated from their husbands. Their intellectual abilities were also tested. Nuns were to be silent in places of prayer, the cloister, the dormitory, and refectory. Silence was maintained unless the prioress granted an exception for a specific cause. Speaking was allowed in the common parlor, but it was subordinate to strict rules, and the prioress, subprioress or other senior nun had to be present.{{sfn|Lee|2001|p=30}}

Dominic dispatched 12 friars to England under the guidance of their English prior, Gilbert of Fresney, and they landed in [[Dover]] on August 5, 1221. The province officially came into being at its first provincial chapter in 1230.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p=1}}

The first Dominican site in England was at Oxford, in the parishes of St. Edward and St. Adelaide.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p=4}} The friars built an oratory to the Blessed Virgin Mary{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|p= 6|ps=: There was a dispute over this oratory in 1228.}} and by 1265, the brethren, in keeping with their devotion to study, began erecting a school. The Dominican brothers likely began a school immediately after their arrival, as priories were legally schools.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1951|pp=8–9}} Information about the schools of the English Province is limited, but a few facts are known. Much of the information available is taken from visitation records.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=32}} The "visitation" was an inspection of the province by which visitors to each priory could describe the state of its religious life and its studies at the next chapter. There were four such visits in England and Wales—Oxford, London, Cambridge and York.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=33}} All Dominican students were required to learn grammar, old and new logic, natural philosophy and theology. Of all of the curricular areas, however, theology was the most important.{{sfn|O'Carroll|1980|p=57}}

[[File:Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bartolomé de Las Casas]] ({{c.|1484–1566}})]]

[[Gaspar da Cruz]] ({{c.|1520–1570}}), who worked all over the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia, was probably the first Christian missionary to preach (unsuccessfully) in [[Dark ages of Cambodia|Cambodia]]. After a (similarly unsuccessful) stint, in 1556, in [[Guangzhou#Imperial China|Guangzhou]], China, he eventually returned to Portugal and became the first European to publish a book devoted exclusively to China in 1569/1570.{{sfn|Lach|1994|pp=742–743}}

=== 18th century ===

In 1731, a book entitled "''The second volume of the history of the Province of Spain of the Order of Preachers, chronicling the progress of their foundations and the lives of illustrious figures,"'' was written by the chronicler of the Order of Preachers and the Province of Spain, the General Preacher [[Friar|Fr.]] Manuel Joseph de Medrano, [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|Prior]] of the [[convent]] of Santo Domingo in [[Guadalajara, Spain|Guadalajara]]. Medrano, a native of [[Logroño]], dedicated his book to, and under the protection of the Illustrious and Reverend Lord D. Fr. Francisco Lasso de la Vega y Cordova, [[bishop]] of [[Plasencia]], with privilege, printed in [[Madrid]] at the printing press of Geronimo Roxo.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Manuel Joseph de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZewkYse_VsC&pg=PP9 |title=Historia de la provincia de Espana, de la orden de predicadores...Escriviala el presentado Fr. Manuel Joseph de Medrano,... |date=1731 |publisher=en la oficina de D. Gabriel del Barrio |language=es}}</ref>

{{As of|2021|January}}, there were 5,753 friars overall, and 4,219 priests.

The province of France has produced many preachers. The conferences of Notre-Dame-de-Paris were inaugurated by Père Lacordaire. The Dominicans of the province of France furnished Lacordaire (1835–1836, 1843–1851),{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}} [[Jacques Monsabré]],{{sfn|Schroeder|1911}} and Joseph Ollivier. The pulpit of Notre Dame has been occupied by a succession of Dominicans. Père [[Henri Didon]] (1840–1900) was a Dominican. The house of studies of the province of France publishes {{lang|fr|L'Année Dominicaine}} (founded 1859), {{lang|fr|La Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Theologiques}} (1907), and {{lang|fr|La Revue de la Jeunesse}} (1909).{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}} French Dominicans founded and administer the {{lang|fr|[[École Biblique]] et Archéologique française de Jérusalem}} founded in 1890 by [[Marie-Joseph Lagrange]] (1855–1938), one of the leading international centres for biblical research. It is at the {{lang|fr|École Biblique}} that the famed [[Jerusalem Bible]] (both editions) was prepared. Likewise Cardinal [[Yves Congar]] was a product of the French province of the Order of Preachers.

Doctrinal development has had an important place in the restoration of the Preachers. Several institutions, besides those already mentioned, played important parts. Such is the Biblical school at [[Jerusalem]], open to the religious of the order and to secular clerics, which publishes the {{lang|fr|Revue Biblique}}. The {{lang|la|Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum}}, the future [[Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas]] ({{lang|la|Angelicum}}) established in Rome in 1908 by Master [[Hyacinth Cormier]], opened its doors to regulars and seculars for the study of the sacred sciences. In addition to the reviews above are the {{lang|fr|Revue Thomiste}}, founded by Père Thomas Coconnier ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1908), and the {{lang|la|Analecta Ordinis Prædicatorum}} (1893). Among numerous writers of the order in this period are: Cardinals [[Thomas Zigliara]] ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1893) and Zephirin González ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1894), two esteemed philosophers; [[Alberto Guillelmotti]] ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1893), historian of the Pontifical Navy, and historian [[Heinrich Denifle]] ({{abbr|d.|died}} 1905).{{sfn|Mandonnet|1911}}

During the Reformation, many of the convents of Dominican nuns were forced to close. One which managed to survive, and afterwards founded many new houses, was St Ursula's in Augsburg. In the 17th century, convents of Dominican women were often asked by their bishops to undertake apostolic work, particularly educating girls and visiting the sick. St Ursula's returned to an enclosed life in the 18th century, but in the 19th century, after Napoleon had closed many European convents, King Louis I of Bavaria in 1828 restored the Religious Orders of women in his realm, provided that the nuns undertook some active work useful to the State (usually teaching or nursing).<ref name="kwtdominicans.co.za" /> In 1877, Bishop Ricards in South Africa requested that Augsburg send a group of nuns to start a teaching mission in King Williamstown.<ref name="dominicanmissionarysisters.org">{{cite web|url=https://dominicanmissionarysisters.org/|title=Dominican Missionary Sisters – of the Sacred Heart of Jesus|website=Dominican Missionary Sisters|access-date=2019-02-15|archive-date=2019-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129113103/https://dominicanmissionarysisters.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> From this mission were founded many Third Order Regular congregations of Dominican sisters, with their own constitutions, though still following the Rule of Saint Augustine and affiliated to the Dominican Order. These include the Dominican Sisters of Oakford, KwazuluNatal (1881),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oakforddominicans.org/our-congregation/|title=Dominican Sisters of Oakford – Our Congregation|website=oakforddominicans.org|access-date=2016-08-22|archive-date=2016-11-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103063355/http://oakforddominicans.org/our-congregation/|url-status=live}}</ref> the Dominican Missionary Sisters, Zimbabwe, (1890)<ref name="dominicanmissionarysisters.org"/> and the Dominican Sisters of Newcastle, KwazuluNatal (1891).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dominicansisters.co.uk/our-story/mother-rose-niland/|title=Mother Rose Niland|first=Dominican|last=Sisters|date=25 February 2010|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215222825/https://www.dominicansisters.co.uk/our-story/mother-rose-niland/|archive-date=15 February 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Dominican Order has influenced the formation of other orders outside of the Catholic Church, such as the [[Anglican Order of Preachers]] within the [[Anglican Communion]]. Since not all members are obliged to take solemn or simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, it operates more like a [[third order]] with a third order style structure, with no contemporary or canonical ties to the historical order founded by Dominic of Guzman.<ref name="dominicanfriars.org" /> The [[Order of Christ the Saviour]] is a dispersed [[Anglo-Catholicism|Anglo-Catholic]] Dominican community founded in the 21st century within the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Association of Episcopal Christian Communities |url=https://www.naecc.net/ |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=naecc |language=en}}</ref>

The Pax Mongolica of the 13th and 14th centuries that united vast parts of the European-Asian continents enabled Western missionaries to travel east. "Dominican friars were preaching the Gospel on the Volga Steppes by 1225 (the year following the establishment of the Kipchak Khanate by Batu), and in 1240 Pope Gregory IX despatched others to Persia and Armenia."{{sfn|Marsh-Edwards|1937|p=599}} The most famous Dominican was [[Jordan Catala|Jordanus de Severac]] who was sent first to Persia then in 1321, together with a companion (Nicolas of Pistoia) to India. Jordanus' work and observations are recorded in two letters he wrote to the friars of Armenia, and a book, {{lang|la|Mirabilia}}, translated as ''Wonders of the East''.

*1998 – [[Bologna]], Italy <ref name=dlay>Stooker, G., [https://web.archive.org/web/20110819184846/http://laity.op.org/eng/library/krak2004.php Report of the Promoter General of the Dominican Laity to the Friars General Chapter, Krakow, Poland, 2004], published June 2004, archived 19 August 2011, accessed 11 February 2024</ref>

*2001 – [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]], USA <ref name=dlay />

*2010 – 290th General Chapter, 1–21 September 2010, Rome,<ref>Irish Dominicans, [https://dominicans.ie/general-chapter-of-dominican-order/ General Chapter of Dominican Order] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208080812/https://dominicans.ie/general-chapter-of-dominican-order/ |date=2022-12-08 }}, accessed 8 December 2022</ref> which elaborated the ''mission mandates'' of the order.<ref name=rel22>Order of Preachers, [https://www.op.org/relatio-of-the-master-of-the-order/ RELATIO OF THE MASTER OF THE ORDER TO THE GENERAL CHAPTER OF TULTENANGO JULY 2022], Prot. n. 50/20/485 Tultenango 2022, accessed 28 July 2023</ref>

For English Dominican mystics, the mystical experience was not expressed just in one moment of the full knowledge of God but in the journey of or process of faith. That then led to an understanding that was directed toward an experiential knowledge of divinity. However, for these mystics it was possible to pursue mystical life without the visions and voices that are usually associated with such a relationship with God.

* [[Dominik Duka]] (b. 1943), Czech, former [[Archbishop of Prague]]

* [[Jacques Loew]] (1908–1999), French [[worker-priest]]

* [[Patricia Madigan]] (b. 1950) Australian [[Religious sister (Catholic)|religious sister]], member and leader of the Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia and the Solomon Islands and Executive Director of the Dominican Centre for Interfaith Ministry Education and Research (CIMER).

* {{cite book|last=Tugwell|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Tugwell|title=Early Dominicans: Selected Writings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCBevwEACAAJ|year=1982|publisher=SPCK|isbn=978-0-281-04024-7}}

* [https://marburydominicannuns.org/ The Dominican Monastery of Saint Jude in Marbury, Alabama]

* [https://opnuns.org/ Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Monastery in Buffalo, New York (a Dominican contemplative monastery with Latin chant)]

* [https://www.fatimadominicans.com/ Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary]