St Dominic Preached Humility, Learning

7 August 2001, 12:57am IST
Janina Gomes.

A bridge must have its foundations fixed as firmly on the bank where we are going as on the bank from which we come. the genius of dominic guzman, the medieval saint, who founded the order of the dominican friars-preachers, as miarie humbert vicaire says, was the double orientation of his activity. he was now turned inwards on the indwelling reality, now turned outwards to his neighbour. his immediate successor in the monastic order he founded, jordan of saxony says: "dominic welcomed all people into his vast charity. during the day, no one more than he shared the company of his brethren or of those who accompanied him on his journeys and no one was more joyful than he. he had imposed on himself, a law to rejoice with the joyful and to weep with the sorrowful. filled with holy love, he devoted himself entirely in the service of others and to compassion for the destitute. but during the night, no one was more ardent in his vigils than he, in prayer and supplication of all kinds. he devoted the day to his neighbour and the night to god".

St dominic prayed everywhere. when walking on the road, he kept silence at the accustomed times. sometimes, regardless of ravenous wolves which had attacked a number of people, he stopped in a forest and moved by an inspiration, he knelt there to pray. if he heard the bell of a nearby monastery calling the monks to divine worship, he went there to joint them in their prayers. but he was not a stern hermit. none more than he loved the company of his brethren, the neighbours from whom he begged the bread of the community, the pilgrims or travellers he met on the road, the sick people he visited, the religious communities or the crowds to whom, when passing he spoke the word of god. he felt at ease with everyone and had the proper word for each of them. his candour and simplicity appealed to all.

But his usual serenity altered immediately at the sight of human misery. during the great famines of 1195-1198, he sold his furniture and even the parchment bible with his own notes written on it and the treasure of his student life, to build a house of mercy.

He was a man of dialogue. he was a man who wanted to talk to others, soul to soul. before exchanging words, he tried to speak to the heart of people, to rouse the fundamental inspirations of that life which touches our destiny, ready to give anyone the reasons for the faith and hope which they possessed.

St dominic founded an order of mendicant poverty. for him mendicant poverty was not just a form of abandonment to god's providence. he said, "when we kneel down to receive a loaf, whenever we ask for a hearing while begging for our daily bread, we are sharing lovingly in the humiliation which was involved in jesus becoming our redeemer". for st. dominic, the humility, the poverty, the harmony of heart and mind with christ and the apostles, was not just ornamental. it was its very essence.

St dominic lived in a time when religion was on the wane, with growing material prosperity. the religious prospect was dark. believing that the preacher preaches by example more than words, he set up an order of preachers that emphasised poverty, humility and learning. in fact, dominic's role in preserving the learning of the church in the mediaeval ages is legendary.

He placed his two principal houses near the universities of paris and bologna and decided that each of his houses should form schools of theology. this at once determined the capital role that the dominicans would play in university studies.

St dominic fought the belief widely prevalent in his time that two supreme spirits, good and evil dominate spirit and matter respectively, so that whatever concerns the body such as eating, drinking, procreation and the possession of worldly goods is essentially evil, and the ideal is the renunciation of these things and even of life itself. in fact, he restored to matter a spiritual value and rejected the division of reality into two supreme beings. with his emphasis on learning, he founded an order which combined great scholarship with a priestly ministry.

The legacy he left behind which is spread over all quarters of the globe today is an order of friars-preachers - the dominicans, a religious order with a universal mission of preaching, and a centralised organisation with a great emphasis on scholarship.