Pilegrimskirke
APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY
Prot. N. 369/05/I
MOST HOLY FATHER,
Carlos Alfonso Azpiroz Costa, Master general of the Order of Friars Preachers, with his Curia, and also in the name of all the monasteries of contemplative life of the nuns joined from the beginning to the Order of Preachers by the Holy Patriarch Dominic, earnestly declares profound sentiments of filial devotion and religious obedience, while informing you and requesting of you what follows.
Our Holy Father Dominic, travelling with Diego de Acebes, bishop of Osma, saw with his own eyes the great evils that had arisen in France as a result of the Cathar heresy, and this caused him great sorrow.
In order to root out these evils, it was absolutely necessary that there should be steadfast preaching, suitable for transmitting catholic truth and confirmed by holiness of life. Hence there arose Saint Dominic’s intention to found a religious order that, as its purpose and special vocation, would embrace witnessing to the catholic faith in this way, not only in France, but in the whole world.However, totally grounded in the rule of faith, the Holy Patriarch Dominic considered that the ministry of preaching should arise from the firm root of contemplation. Thus the Holy Patriarch desired that the future Order of Preachers should spring forth, as if from its own mother, from a community completely dedicated to the contemplative life. Read more
