St. Dominic, Our Patron Saint

St. Dominic was the founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers and the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists. As we bring Christ's message to the whole universe, we pray that St. Dominic is with us and he guides our mission for the greater honor and glory of God.

Dominicans in the Sciences

  • 1170: At his baptism, St. Dominic’s aunt receives a vision where a gleaming star descends down onto Dominic’s forehead.
  • 1206: Albertus Magnus is born. He was a Dominican friar and Bishop of Regensburg who has been described as “one of the most famous precursors of modern science in the High Middle Ages. Worked in physics, logic, metaphysics, biology, and psychology. He was an influential teacher and mentor to St. Thomas Aquinas.
  • 1225: St. Thomas Aquinas is born. He is considered one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers, posthumously given the titles Doctor Angelicus (“Angelic Doctor”), Doctor Communis (“Universal Doctor”), and most recently in 1999, Doctor Humanitatis (“Doctor of Humanity/Humaneness”).
  • 1234: St. Dominic is canonized by Pope Gregory IX and declared patron of Astronomy, astronomers, and the natural sciences.
  • 1240: Theodoric Borgognoni, O.P. becomes the personal physician of Pope Innocent IV. He entered the Dominicans while studying at the University of Bologna. His major medical work is the Cyrurgia (Surgery), is an extensive 4 volumes covering all aspects of surgery. In addition to his surgical works, Borgognoni also produced volumes on veterinary medicine and falconry.
  • 1245: St. Albert the Great becomes Master of Theology – the first German Dominican to achieve this distinction. He emphasized the importance of an experimental approach to science by doing a great amount of original observational work in botany and zoology, especially in the classification of plants, flowers, and fruits, animal reproduction, embryology, and in the study of insects. Based on ancient Greek theories of light and Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi’s astrological explanations, he proposed the theory that the Moon attracts water by its intrinsic astrological humid nature and by the heat that the moonlight produces.
  • 1264: Vincent of Beauvais O.P. publishes his work “Speculum Maius” (The Great Mirror). It was a major encyclopedia of the Middle Ages which took 29 years to complete.
  • 1274: St. Thomas Aquinas O.P. publishes the Summa Theologiae after 9 years of writing.
  • 1311: Theodoric of Freiberg O.P. publishes De iride et radialibus impressionibus (On the Rainbow and the impressions created by irradiances.) Theodoric was able to give one of the first correct geometrical analyses of the rainbow – perhaps the most dramatic development of 14th- and 15th-century optics. He is considered one of the most notable philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages.
  • 1323: St. Thomas Aquinas O.P. is canonized by Pope John XXII and named patron of Catholic Education, teachers, students, theologians, and philosophers.
  • 1378: St. Catherine of Siena completes her major treatise: The Dialogue of Divine Providence. It is said that much of the work was dictated while Catherine was in ecstasy, and is described as a dialogue between God and a soul.
  • 1461: St. Catherine of Siena is canonized and declared Doctor of the Church for her extensive theological authorship. She is the patron saint of against fire, bodily ills, people ridiculed for their piety, nurses, sick people, and miscarriages.
  • 1551: Domingo de Soto O.P., a scholastic theologian and naturalist, presents his works on mechanics and gravity in his book “Physicorum Aristotelis quaestiones”. This served as the basis for the studies of Galileo Galilee and Isaac Newton.
  • 1574: Ignazio Danti O.P. uses his instruments to calculate the time of the March equinox, an important date for calculating the date of Easter. He became a leading figure in proposing the reforms that lead to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
  • 1633: The Dominican Father General apologizes to Galileo for the way he had been attacked.
  • 1745: Joseph Galien O.P. publishes his first influential work: “The art of sailing in the air, physical and geometric amusement, preceded by a memoir on the formation of hail.” He later published “Physical explanation of the effects of electricity.”
  • 1806: “Astronomy in Art,” the oldest Dominican religious house in the United States, demonstrates some of the oldest astronomical images in its stained glass windows.
  • 1931: St. Albert the Great is canonized and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI. He is named the patron saint of natural sciences, scientists, and philosophers.
  • 1953: Sr. Miriam Michael O.P. becomes the second woman in history (after Marie Curie) to be invited to lecture at the Sorbonne. She was an American Adrian Dominican Sister and chemist and also the first woman invited to lecture at Notre Dame University. She contributed to the understanding of DNA and was listed in several editions of “American Men of Science.”
  • 2011: Nicanor Robles Austriaco, Jr. O.P. publishes a book titled Biomedicine and Beatitude: an Introduction to Catholic Bioethics. The book responds to questions raised in scientific and medical ethics from the perspective of the Catholic moral tradition that is grounded in a natural law and virtue ethics.

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