Diocese of Madison Bishop Donald Hying celebrated the feast day of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominicans, on Aug. 8.

“Today we celebrate the feast of St. Dominic, who was born in Spain, lived at the same time as St. Francis of Assisi, and tradition says there came a moment when the two of them met, founders of these two great mendicant orders - the Franciscans and the Dominicans - orders that were not cloistered, didn't live in monasteries, went out and preached in the plazas, the streets, the marketplaces of Europe's cities and villages,” Hying said in a Facebook video. 

The bishop then acknowledged and thanked the Dominican brothers and sisters who serve in the Diocese of Madison.

St. Dominic was born in Spain in the 12th century into a noble family. Britannica reports that he joined a religious community in his 20s. While traveling abroad with the Bishop of Osmo, Dominic realized that the Church in France was being threatened by Albigensian heretics who were teaching that anything concerning the body - including eating, drinking, and procreating - was evil. Dominic and the bishop determined that to convert the heretics, they needed to practice austerity by living in poverty and traveling barefoot, which marked the beginning of Dominic's "evangelical preaching." 

Dominic succeeded in converting about 16 heretics who began to follow him. The group worked to establish a formal religious order devoted to preaching, and Pope Honorius III officially recognized the Dominican Order in 1216. 

Catholics celebrate St. Dominic's feast day each year on Aug. 8, according to Franciscan Media. He is the patron saint of astronomers, as well as of the Dominican Republic. 

The Dominican Order comprises friars, nuns, sisters and lay people, who continue to practice St. Dominic's mission of teaching, preaching, studying and praying. Dominican friars in the U.S. are engaged in campus ministry at universities, lead retreats, missions and workshops, serve as chaplains in hospitals and convents, and serve as missionaries. 

“St. Dominic had a tremendous devotion to the word of God, and he carried the Bible with him always and had great pieces of it memorized,” Hying said. “Actually not too much is known about his life, but we do know that he was dedicated to preaching, and so even the letters after Domincans' names - O.P - stand for the Order of the Preacher."