Saint Dominic

Dominic was born in Caleruega, Spain, in 1170 and, while traveling through southern France as a young canon, was struck by the spread of the Cathar movement, a dualist sect the Church considered heretical, and by the failure of local clergy to effectively counter it through preaching or example. He resolved to found an order of educated, itinerant preachers who would live in evangelical poverty like those they hoped to persuade. He established the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), formally approved in 1216, emphasizing rigorous study alongside prayer and preaching — a combination that would later produce figures like Thomas Aquinas. He traveled extensively across Europe establishing communities of friars and nuns, and died in Bologna in 1221, exhausted from years of travel and austere living, and was canonized within thirteen years.