Bériou abstract

Preaching about the Sanctity of St. Dominic, Founder of the Order of Preachers

Nicole Bériou

University of Lyon 2; Director, Institut de recherches et d’histoire des textes; Director of Studies, École pratique des hautes études

The cult in honor of St. Dominic (d. 1221) arose out of preaching without words. His body was at first buried without any special precautions, but on the day of the translation of his remains to the church of the Dominican convent in Bologna (23 May 1233), the body emitted an odor that attested to his sanctity in the presence of all the stupefied witnesses to the miracle. A year later, 3 July 1234, Gregory IX proclaimed him a saint after a short canonization process; according to very recently established procedures, it was based on interrogations of the men and women who had known him. Two modes of representing his sanctity resulted in preaching that was distributed over two liturgical feasts. The motif of the miraculous odor is attested at the outset, and not only from sermons for the feast of the translation. The learned construction of a “modern” figure of sanctity predominates, such as it is abridged in the bull Fons sapientiae, but not without the risk of limiting the evocation of Dominic to a sketch without distinctive traits, an inevitable echo of his own discretion. The selection of characteristics chosen acquires meaning through its repetitive character: the man perfect in the three states of life that he experienced (the lay person, the canon, the apostolic man), but the man of the Gospel above all. As much a leading light on earth as a militant knight armed with the sword of the word, he is clearly the destroyer of heretics (his own book survived the trial by fire) and often also a living reproach to bad prelates. (Active by day, engaged, attentive to others, and compassionate, he reserves the night for fervent prayer, which dries out the damp clothing that he wears.) Before images and legends fixed these anecdotes and others in memory, sermons accorded them a privileged place. If the preachers who consider the sanctity of Dominic from the outside (namely secular clergy) represent his preaching in their sermons as a reflection of their own (preaching that the saint illustrates but everyone attends), the Dominicans distinguished themselves by the place they accorded to their order. Established by St. Dominic, but especially in conformity with the Fons sapientiae and The Book of Jordan of Saxony, and willed by God, the order becomes in many cases the principal subject of their discourse.