The Patronage Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Dominican Feast Day.

Illustration: BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

Pope Honorius III approves 

The Rule of Saint Dominic (1216).

Illustration: BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

Seal of The Dominican Order.

Date: 3 August 2023.

Source: Own work based on: EscOrdendePredicadores2Wikipedia.png

Author: Original author unknown.

Vectorised by: ReneeWrites

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

unless stated otherwise.

December 22:

The Patronage Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

I truly enjoy this Feast Day. As a member of The Order, it brings me great joy to know that I am part of a family that is nearly 800 years old, and which has been endowed by Almighty God with so many holy men and women.

It is also a great joy to me that there is a specific date which serves as the birthday, so to speak, for The Order.

Traditionally, this Feast Day was Celebrated in November. Today, it is celebrated in May. But, for a brief period of time in the Early-20th-Century, it was Celebrated on 22 December, to coincide with the anniversary of the approval of The Order by Pope Honorius III in 1216. 

Personally, I like the 22 December date, and I think this is the perfect place for this Feast. Our Lady was, no doubt, instrumental in the Founding of this most favoured of her Religious Orders. 

The Collect Prayer even speaks to her role in the institution of The Order. For me, to Celebrate Our Lady’s Patronage over our Order and the anniversary of the Founding of The Order, all during the Holy Season of Advent, seems like a wonderful combination.

The following Text is from:

“Short Lives of the Dominican Saints”. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901).

The Festival kept throughout The Dominican Order on [the 2nd Sunday of November] is a family Feast, kept by the children of Saint Dominic in memory of, and in gratitude for, the countless benefits they have received through the virginal hands of Her whom their Constitutions call “our special Advocate and our most tender Mother and Patroness, who ever intercedes for us with God.” 

On that day they beg of Her, with renewed sentiments of confidence and gratitude, to continue to show herself a Mother to them, and to protect and deliver them in all their troubles and distresses, as she has ever done from the Foundation of The Order, even to our own day.

To Saint Dominic and his sons, she entrusted the Preaching of Her Rosary, the special birthright and heritage of The Order. 

“Salve Regina”.

Available on YouTube

HERE

She has often shown herself in vision to Her children, during the singing of the Salve Regina, prostrating at the feet of Her Divine Son, and pleading for The Order, so dear to Her heart.

“Salve Regina”.

Available on YouTube

HERE

When Pope Innocent IV published a Bull in 1244, by which the privileges of The Order were taken away and the Brethren left exposed to the unfriendly attacks of their opponents, they had recourse to The Blessed Virgin Mary as their only hope; and when, eleven years later, Pope Alexander IV revoked the Bull of his predecessor and restored all the ancient rights and privileges of The Order, these benefits were recognised to be directly the gift of God, through the intercession of The Blessed Virgin.

Of the favours bestowed by The Mother of God on the Saints of The Order, and of their filial love and devotion towards Her, it is impossible here to speak. She is their helper and consoler in life and their secure refuge at the hour of death. 

Hence, from the first Century of its existence, it has been the universal practice in The Order to sing Her Salve Regina round the deathbed of its members, so that the children of Saint Dominic may pass from this Vale of Tears, their hearts echoing the familiar Prayer whereby they have daily entreated The Mother of Mercy to show them, when this life’s exile is ended, the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus.

Prayer

O God, you willed that under the special patronage of The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, The Order of Preachers should be instituted for salvation of Souls, and that it should be filled with Her unceasing favours, grant to your suppliants that, guarded by Her aid, whose Commemoration we Celebrate today, we may be brought to the heavenly glory. 

Through our Lord . . .

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

The Order of Preachers (Latin: Ordo Prædicatorum; abbreviated OP), also known as The Dominican Order, is a Roman Catholic Mendicant Order of Pontifical Right that was Founded in France by a Castilian Priest named Dominic de Guzmán.

It was approved by Pope Honorius III via the Papal Bull “Religiosam vitam” on 22 December 1216. Members of The Order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally display the letters OP after their names, standing for “Ordinis Prædicatorum”, meaning “of The Order of Preachers”.

Membership in The Order includes Friars,[b] Nuns, Active Sisters, and Lay or Secular Dominicans (formerly known as Tertiaries).

More recently, there has been a growing number of Associates of the Religious Sisters, who are unrelated to the Tertiaries.