One of the patronesses of the Dominican Order is St. Catherine of Alexandria.  Why would this martyr, who lived 800 years before St. Dominic, be a patroness for the Order of Preachers?  According to her hagiography, St. Catherine converted from paganism to Christianity.  As the Catholic Encyclopedia relates:  "Catherine presented herself to the Emperor…  » More

"The ministry of the two great figures Francis and Dominic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was one way in which Christ entered anew into history, communicating His word and His love with fresh vigor. It was one way in which He renewed His Church and drew history toward Himself." From the Epilogue of Jesus of Nazareth, Part II, 291-92.

As…  » More

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"Dieu est le Dieu du coeur humain" [God is the God of the human heart] ("Treatise on the Love of God," I, XV): In these seemingly simple words we see the essence of a great teacher's spirituality, St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, of whom I would like to speak to you today.

Born in 1567, in a French…  » More

The first called
In a Wednesday catechesis from 2006, our Holy Father explains why St. Andrew is called the "protoclete":

"He was truly a man of faith and hope; and one day he heard John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus as: "the Lamb of God" (Jn 1:36); so he was stirred, and with another unnamed disciple followed Jesus, the one whom John had called…  » More

The Nov. 24 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle contains an article by Fr. Michael Sweeney, O.P., a Dominican priest from the Province of the Holy Name (Western Province).  Fr. Sweeney also comments on the media's invented controversy about the book's reporting of the Pope's views on condoms.  But more than that, Fr. Sweeney helps to reveal some…  » More

During yesterday's General Audience address, Pope Benedict XVI  spoke about St. Gertrude who is the patroness of one of our churches in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first Catholic church in Ohio was founded in Somerset in 1818 by Dominican Father Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P., who was later appointed the first bishop of Cincinnati in 1821. The Dominican community…  » More

Watch the video above which takes a look at the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman. The beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman will take place on September 19th during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain. Beatification is the final step before canonization. Newman was an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism in 1845. He had a great…  » More