Dominican Friars are consecrated to preach Jesus Christ, the Truth. Dominican Friars follow the example of St. Dominic by immersing themselves in study, prayer, and community so that they may preach effectively in a world that has lost its way.

It costs over $58,000 per year to form one friar — even with a simple lifestyle. Your gift helps provide:

• Tuition, books, and educational resources
• Housing and meals in community
• Travel for ministry and pastoral assignments
• Healthcare and insurance
• Spiritual and human formation

From the time of St. Dominic, the preaching of the Dominican friars was greatly aided by the fervent prayers of the cloistered Dominican nuns. In the following centuries, new modes of life have developed that share in the Dominican charism, including congregations of active Dominican sisters and the Lay and Clerical Fraternities of St. Dominic (sometimes known as the “Third Order”).

Throughout its history, the Order of Preachers has been blessed with men and women of great sanctity and wisdom—and in many cases by individuals marked with both qualities! In the thirteenth century, friars such as St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Raymond of Penyafort, Bl. James of Voragine, Hugh of St. Cher and Vincent of Beauvais transformed the intellectual culture of their time, initiating intellectual traditions in areas as diverse as theology, philosophy, law, hagiography, and the natural sciences that have continued to bear fruit for centuries.

In the late Middle Ages, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Vincent Ferrer, and Bl. Raymund of Capua each contributed to the reform and renewal of the Church in the midst of crises such as the Great Western Schism.

In the early modern period, friars such as Thomas de Vio Cajetan, Francisco de Vitoria and Barthomé de las Casas contributed to the development of scriptural exegesis, Thomistic theology, international law, and the development of appropriate modes of treating indigenous peoples in the New World, where Dominican friars were sent as missionaries.

In the nineteenth century, friars such as Edward Dominic Fenwick and Henri-Dominique Lacordaire worked to establish and reestablish the life of the Order, in the United States and France respectively. In the twentieth century, friars continued to make significant contributions to the life of the Church in a variety of ways, such as through the biblical exegesis of Marie-Joseph Lagrange, the theological teaching of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, the ecumenical and ecclesiological work of Yves Congar, and the popularizations of Thomistic theology by Walter Farrell.