In thirteenth-century Europe, there was, in the words of Amos the Prophet, “a famine of the hearing of the Word of God” (Amos 8:11), and the vacuum was frequently filled by superstition, divisive heresy, and a love for this world.

It was in such a world that Dominic de Guzman grew up. The son of a Spanish noble, Dominic had a heart for God from a young age. While a philosophy student, he sold his books to buy food for the starving, and for ten years he served as a canon of the Cathedral at Osma in Spain.

In 1204 or thereabout, Dominic and his bishop, Diego, passed through southern France on a journey, and the journey changed their lives. They discovered a devastated church in the region. Manichees, Cathari, Albigensians—the movement had various names—had propagated a doctrine that included a hatred for creation, for material sacraments, and even for the body itself.

Dominic saw the need for preachers of the true faith who would be learned, disciplined, and poor. With the approval of the bishop of Toulouse, Dominic began to gather a group of men willing to take up the dangers of preaching in hostile territory. As he gathered his preachers, Dominic also established a convent of nuns (mostly converts from heresy), whose example and prayer would lend support to the campaign of the preachers.

Dominic’s brethren embraced a liturgical life of prayer, like the monks. They embraced an active ministry, as a community, like the canons. And they dedicated themselves to assiduous study to be equipped to preach and defend the fullness of the truth.

Yet, unlike other forms of religious communities, but hearkening back to the life of the Apostles, they would move about according to the needs of the Church, begging for what they needed and preaching the Gospel wherever they went.

Pope Honorius III approved St. Dominic’s plan of life for the preaching friars in December 1216. The friars, up to that time a promising experiment in southern France, were now given wider scope, directly under the patronage of the Holy See. And in 1217 Dominic took decisive action to ensure that the work of the Order would range as widely as did the need for preachers. He called his sixteen new followers together and dispersed them, despite their objections. Dominic’s reply: “Seed that is hoarded rots. You shall no longer live together in this house.” So he sent them off: four to Spain, seven to Paris, two to stay in Toulouse, two to Prouille. He and one last brother shortly went off to Rome. The seed was being scattered to ensure a bountiful harvest.

By 1221, the year of Dominic’s death, his order boasted some 500 friars, now spread as far as Hungary, Denmark, and England. By 1222 they had reached the mission fields of Cracow, Danzig, and Prague. Soon after, they were preaching the Word in Greece and Palestine, and in the following centuries the friars would preach the Gospel throughout the whole world.

After a lifetime of energetic preaching, as he lay on his deathbed, St. Dominic promised his brothers, “I shall be more useful to you and more fruitful after my death than I was in my life.”

The friars of the Order of Preachers continue to beseech the prayers of their founder, singing the O Lumen, a hymn to St. Dominic’s honor, at the conclusion of Night Prayer:

O light of the church, teacher of truth,
rose of patience, ivory of chastity,
You freely poured forth the waters of wisdom,
preacher of grace, unite us with the blessed.