Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception

Those nearby noticed a sweet-smelling aroma when Dominic’s tomb was opened.

Today the world over, Dominicans remember the feast of the translation, or moving of the body, of their founder, St. Dominic. In the medieval world, and in many countries today with a large Catholic population, veneration of the saints is an important part of life. Pilgrimages are often made to the burial places of favorite saints.

St. Dominic died on August 6, 1221 and was buried in the church of St. Nicholas of the Vineyards in Bologna, Italy. Twelve years later, Pope Gregory IX encouraged the Dominicans to move his body to a more suitable tomb. In a blog by a community of cloistered Dominican nuns in Texas, the sisters write that the brethren “were apparently too busy carrying on Dominic’s work to think of Dominic himself!”

A Wonderful Odor Poured Out

The sisters write that the brethren had misgivings about the translation, fearing that Dominic’s body —which “had lain in a mean tomb exposed to the elements,” according to Bl. Jordan of Saxony, the second master general of the Order of Preachers — would be found decomposed. However, their fears were foolish. When the tomb was opened “a wonderful odor poured out from the opening and its fragrance caused astonishment among those present. Everyone shed tears, and feelings of joy, of fear and of hope rose in all hearts.” The body was then taken to its new tomb in Bologna.

This day, May 24, 1233, was the beginning of the canonization process of Dominic and it was completed on July 3, 1234, when he officially became St. Dominic. Since 1267 St. Dominic’s remains have resided in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.

Quote of Blessed Jordan taken from the Office of Readings of the Dominican breviary for May 24.

St. Catherine’s mystical marriage to Christ

During Eastertide we anticipate the Ascension, when Jesus rose into heaven with his glorified body forty days after His Resurrection. The mystery of the Ascension is made clearer by the mystic St. Catherine of Siena, a Third Order Dominican who more than six hundred years ago explained how Jesus is a Bridge that stretched from earth to heaven on this day.

Choose the Bridge or the river

In a book called the Dialog, St. Catherine says that each of us chooses to live our lives by walking either on the Bridge, which is Christ, or on the river, which is the way without God, and in which one drowns. Both ways are full of fatigue, she says, but in choosing the Bridge, one experiences delight, and “every bitterness becomes sweet, and every burden light.”

She writes, speaking for God the Father,

For those who cross by the Bridge, being still in the darkness of the body, find light, and, being mortal, find immortal life, tasting, through love, the light of Eternal Truth which promises refreshment to him who wearies himself for Me…. He, therefore, is a fool indeed, who despises so great a good, and chooses rather to receive in this life, the earnest money of Hell, walking by the lower road with great toil, and without any refreshment or advantage.

When Jesus ascended to heaven, St. Catherine says, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit, “who came to you with My power and the wisdom of My Son, and with His own clemency, which is the essence of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit built up the “road of doctrine” which is “My Truth,” which Jesus left in the world. Thus, even though Jesus is not now with us bodily, his doctrine and virtue remains.

The clemency of the Holy Spirit

The clemency of the Holy Spirit, St. Catherine says, made the disciples certain of the doctrine, so that they would “confess the truth, and to announce this road, that is, the doctrine of Christ crucified, reproving, by this means, the world of its injustice and false judgment….”

St. Catherine was born in 1347 in Siena, Italy, and is one of the few women doctors of the Church. She experienced a “mystical marriage” with Jesus, and although she at first lived a secluded life, she was told by Christ to live a public life. She then travelled throughout Italy, helping the ill and poor, and acting as an emissary of the pope in an effort to obtain peace among warring factions within the country. Her feast day is April 29.