This year, 2016, the Jubilee Year of Mercy happens to also be the 800th Anniversary of the confirmation of the Order of Preachers (O.P.), the order founded by St. Dominic. On May 21, 11 men were ordained to the priesthood in National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. The huge shrine was filled to capacity It is the largest number of friars ordained for the Dominican’s eastern Province of St Joseph in 45 years.
The Dominicans, also known as the Blackfriars and “the Friars,” have been preparing for their 800th Anniversary since 2009. They chose the general theme, culled from 1 Corinthians 9:16: “Woe to us if we do not preach the gospel!”
The rewards of such preparation and prayer are proving sweet.
Not only were 11 men ordained in the eastern province. Sixteen men are slated to enter the Dominican eastern province’s novitiate in Cincinnati on August 8, the Feast of St. Dominic. They will join 69 men currently in formation there. And this province is just one of four Dominican provinces within the United States alone.
“Our Lord commanded us to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest, and we have done so—and these are his answer to our prayer,” said Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, O.P., adjunct secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome and presider of the May 21 ordination Mass.
In his sermon, Archbishop Noia underscored that this class was “blessed to be the 800th-anniversary ordination class” of the province.
December 22, 2016, will mark the exact date, 800 years ago, in the year 1216, that Pope Honorius III issued to St. Dominic the bull of confirmation that established the Order of Preachers with the mission of “preaching and the salvation of souls.”
800 years! That’s 560 years longer than the United States of America has been around, just to put 800 years in perspective.
To mark the order’s milestone anniversary, the country of Croatia even issued a postage stamp featuring the lunette of the portal of the Church of St. Dominic in Trogir. Depicted in the lunette is the bishop of Zagreb, blessed Augustin Kazotic, O.P.. Dominicans arrived in Croatia soon after the founding of the order, establishing their first monastery in that country in Dubrovnik in 1225.
In New Orleans, beginning yesterday, May 29, 2016, two Dominican priests will echo the frequent method of travel used by their founder, St Dominic de Guzman, by walking more than 450 miles—from St. Anthony of Padua parish in New Orleans to the National Shrine of St. Martin de Porres in Memphis, TN, preaching the Gospel from town to town along the way, rarely staying in one place for long.
The Dominican order—founded on the pillars of prayer, study, community and preaching—has so far produced 200 blessed and 70 saints, including St. Thomas Aquinas (a doctor of the Church), St. Catherine of Siena, St. Martin de Porres, and of course St. Dominic. The order also gave the Church the Rosary and their motto: Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare (To Praise, To Bless, To Preach”)
Today, Brother Bruno Cadoré, master of the order, is the 86th successor of St. Dominic. He directs his order in more than 100 countries, whose members serve in universities, parishes, international missions, and as chaplains in the military, to name just some of their roles. Dominican headquarters are in Santa Sabina, Rome, Italy. The order’s black and white habit, in addition to their work, remains the same as it was 800 years ago.
To learn much more, go to www.op.org.
Or here (the provinces in England and Scotland): http://english.op.org/