SAINT DOMINIC DE GUZMAN
Birth and Childhood

Unfortunately for posterity, the mediaeval chronicler did not attach the same importance to exactitude in the matter of dates as does his modern brother, trained to scientific methods. Consequently, we cannot authoritatively assign to any particular year the event of St. Dominic's birth. So we must content ourselves with the statement that about the year 1170 the future saint was born in Calaroga in Old Castile.

Historians unanimously assign to Felix de Guzman and Joanna d'Aza, the parents of Dominic, a conspicuous place among the nobility of Spain; and some of the saint's biographers have not hesitated to connect them with the reigning house of Old Castile. But whether or not this latter contention be well founded, it is certain that they possessed those princely qualities of soul that unmistakably identified them with the royal household of their heavenly King; and these qualities, which alone constitute true nobility, they transmitted unimpaired to their children.

From the beginning of the thirteenth century Joanna d'Aza was held in popular esteem as a saint. This popular veneration was in a measure sanctioned officially by the Church when, in 1828, she was beatified by Leo XII. Nor were Blessed Joanna and her illustrious son, St. Dominic, the only members of that distinguished family whose sanctity won the formal approbation of the Church. Manes, the second son, one of the first members of the Order founded by his younger brother, was beatified by Gregory XVI; while Antonio, the oldest son, a canon of St. James, was also distinguished for his extraordinary piety.

Among the many interesting and beautiful legends that cluster around the infancy of St. Dominic there are two which are especially worthy of notice: It is narrated that while Joanna d'Aza was awaiting the birth of her third son she seemed to see him, in a dream, born under the appearance of a white and black dog, holding in his mouth a torch which illuminated the entire world. Again, we are told that on the day of his baptism his godmother beheld him, in a vision, with a brilliant star gleaming on his forehead. These two legends have found a place in the coat of arms of the Order, on the shield of which is to be found the dog with his torch, and the shining star of the saint's baptismal day. Whatever may be said of the authenticity of these legends, it is certain that they have received not a little justification from subsequent events in the life of him concerning whom they are narrated. Was it a mere coincidence that the habit in which he chose to clothe his children was made up of black and white garments? And certainly none can deny that he held high the torch of divine truth in the benighted land of the Albigenses. It is equally certain that in the glorious galaxy of the Church's missionaries no star shines more brilliantly than that of the heroic apostle of Languedoc. Another link in the chain of ooincidences, if such they be, is this: The popular name for the religious children of St. Dominic is "Dominicans," the Latin equivalent of which is Dominicani. In the schools of the Middle Ages they were wont to divide the Latin word in two and, changing the final "i" into "es," render it "Domini canes" -- watchdogs of the Lord. This was in recognition of the well-known vigilance of the Order in safeguarding the rights of the Church, and its jealous watchfulness lest heresy mar the beauty of God's eternal truth.