Saint Dominic

​Today is the Feast of Saint Dominic a Spanish friar most known for giving the church the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Dominic and his companion friars were trying to preach against the Albigensian heretics who believed that the body and all material things were evil and only the things of the spirit were good. However their attempts at preaching against this heresy failed and many Catholics in Europe became Albigenisians. One night Our Lady appeared in a vision to Dominic and asked him to preach on the Psalter beads the meditation on the life events of Christ. The Psalter consisted of 150 beads on which the friars prayed 15 sets of 10 Hail Mary's one for each Psalm in the Bible. This meditative prayer became the Rosary we pray today. Our Lady gave him the specific meditations for each of the 15 decades of the rosary. It consisted of 5 sets of meditations on the joyful events of the life of Jesus and His childhood called the Joyful mysteries, the second set of meditations were on the sorrowful events of the life of Jesus called the Sorrowful mysteries and the third set of meditations were on the resurrection and life of Our Lady called the Glorious mysteries. In 2002 Saint Pope John Paul II introduced the fourth set of mysteries on the public ministry of Jesus called the luminous mysteries. While the rosary is by far the most popular devotion among Catholics very few people remember that Saint Dominic was the chosen son of Our Lady who gave the rosary to us. Saint Dominic and Saint Francis shared a unique friendship. On the day before they met in Rome, Saint Dominic had a vision of Saint Francis and so did Saint Francis so they recognized each other without an introduction. There was question of whether the Franciscan order should be a separate new order or if it should merge with the Dominican order. After the saints discussion they decided it would be better if they remained as two separate orders each focusing on their particular charism, Franciscan on poverty and Dominican on prayerful preaching. They had both come to Rome to meet the Pope regarding matters of their respective orders. It is still a tradition for the Franciscans to visit the Dominicans on the Feast Day of their Patron and Founder and the Dominicans do the same on the Feast Day of Saint Francis. Special feast day wishes to all those who are named after Saint Dominic and especially to my son Sunny who's baptismal name is Dominic.