Blessed Paul, Founder of the Hungarian Province

Stained glass window from St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, D.C. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

At the Second General Chapter, held in Bologna in 1221, the Dominican Order’s expansion throughout Christendom was planned in detail. The chapter fathers appointed Paul (d. 1241), a doctor of canon law from Bologna, to lead Dominican missionaries in Hungary, Poland, Albania, Russia, and Mongolia. On the mission to Hungary, in order to cover the territory more effectively, the Polish speaking brothers took the right side of the Danube while the Hungarians took the left. The latter party went up the Danube as far as Raab, where there was a Benedictine abbey, and established the first Dominican convent. In Veszprem, Paul founded a monastery for women, setting its cornerstone into the ground himself. Paul and ninety of his brothers were martyred by the Cuman Tartars, who terrorized the borders of Hungary. These Dominicans have been venerated since.

The above excerpt is from Reflections of Dominican Spirituality: The Windows of St. Dominic Church, Washington, D.C. by Dr. Mary Moran.

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