BornDominic Guzman in 1170
in Calaroga, Castile, Spain.
The Moors had swept across many regions of Spain turning Christian temples
into Moorish Mosques. At 14 he entered the University of Palencia and later
graduated with a degree in liberal arts and sacred sciences. At age 24
he was ordained a priest. At age 33 he came in contact with the Albigensian
heresy. He preached to the Albigensians to try to get them to change their
ways but was met with jeers and insults and they pelted him with stones
and he had little success.
In 1208 in the Church of Prouille, he complained to Our
Lady while in pious prayer. She in turn answered him saying,
'Wonder not that you have obtained so little
fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered
with the dew of Divine Grace. When GOD willed to renew the face of the
earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic
Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations
and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest'.
This revelation of the origin of the Rosary was affirmed
by Pope Leo XIII, and the tradition that Mary first revealed the Rosary
to St. Dominic is supported by 13 Popes. St. Dominic now found great success
in this new devotion and brought about the conversion of the Albigensians.
Our Blessed Lady made known to St. Dominic, a kind of preaching then unknown;
which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future
errors and in future difficulties.
St Dominic found the 'Order of Preachers', or 'Dominicans',
in 1216. Soon after, the friars were sent in all directions. Friaries were
established in Spain, France, England, and Italy. St. Dominic was appointed
master general of the order in 1220, by Pope Honorius III. St. Dominic
died on August 6, 1221, in Bologna. His feast day is August 8.
In 1240, a seemingly invincible Mongolian army, called
the Golden Horde, swept in from the East and destroyed every European army
sent against it. The Knight Templars were defeated in battle after battle.
As the Horde was on the verge of overrunning all of Europe in complete
victory, as there was no army left to stop them, they suddenly ceased hostilities
and returned to Mongolia. This miracle was attributed by many, to European
survivors who prayed the Rosary.
On October 7, 1571, members of the Confraternity of the
Rosary, which was started by St. Dominic in 1218, prayed the Rosary for
a blessing for the Christian fleet fighting the Turks at Lepanto. Pope
St. Pius V, a Dominican, joined them, and GOD revealed to him that Mary
had at that hour obtained a glorious victory for the Christian fleet. This
great victory saved Europe from the Mohammedan peril.
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