| Saint Dominic of Silos, O.S.B. | |
|---|---|
Saint Dominic enthroned as Abbot by Bartolomé Bermejo (15th c.) |
|
| Born | 1000 Cañas (modern Rioja), Spain |
| Died | December 20, 1073 Silos |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Major shrine | Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain |
| Feast | 20 December |
| Attributes | abbot surrounded by the Seven Virtues; mitred abbot enthroned with a book, a veil tied to his crozier, as proper to an abbot |
| Patronage | against rabies; against rabid dogs; against insects; captives; pregnant women; prisoners; shepherds |
Dominic of Silos, O.S.B., (Spanish: Santo Domingo de Silos) (1000 – December 20, 1073) was a Spanish monk, to whom the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, where he served as the abbot, is dedicated. He is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Born in Cañas, La Rioja, to a family of peasants, he worked as a shepherd before becoming a Benedictine monk at the Monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla. There, he soon became Master of novices and then prior, before being driven out with two of his fellow monks by King García Sánchez III of Navarre, for opposing his intention to annex the monastery's lands.
Under the protection of King Ferdinand I of León, they found refuge in the town of Silos at the decaying Monastery of St. Sebastian, occupied by only six monks. (After his death, both the monastery and the town were re-named for him.) Dominic was appointed as the abbot of the community and proceeded to rebuild the monastery, both spiritually and physically. He turned it into a center of book design, gold and silver work, scholarship, and charity. The monastery became one of the centers of the Mozarabic liturgy, and also preserved the Visigothic script of ancient Spain.
Wealthy patrons endowed the monastery, and Dominic raised funds to ransom Christians taken prisoner by the Moors. He died of natural causes on 20 December 1073.
Dominic's relics were translated to the monastery church on 5 January 1076. Churches and monasteries were dedicated to him as early as 1085.
The mother of the better-known Saint Dominic of Guzmán, the Blessed Joan of Aza, is said to have prayed at his shrine before she was able to conceive the son she named for him. That son would grow up to found the Dominican Order. Dominic's special patronage thus became connected with pregnancy, and until the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, his abbatial crozier was used to bless the queens of Spain, and was placed by their beds when they were in labor.
The noted 13th-century priest and poet, Gonzalo de Berceo, wrote an account of his life.