Saint Dominic of Osma spearheaded one of the most efficient reactions to the Church’s ongoing crisis of his days. In facing the propagation of the heretical pauperistic movements, he strived to rekindle Catholic Faith by setting an example through his life, which was virtuous, brotherly, humble, and poor and through effective sermons.

Born in 1170 in Spain, in Caleruega, at 24 years of age he responded to the Lord’s Call by joining the Canons Regular in the canon of Osma, where he was ordinated to priesthood. The turning point in his life took place when his superior, the Bishop of Osma, was assigned a diplomatic mission in Denmark and asked Dominic to accompany him. During the long journey they crossed southern France and that is where Dominic came upon the Cathar and Albigensian heretical movements for the first time, realizing the great dangers that were threatening the Church in that period. That was when he began to think about the future of the Order of Preachers, to draw back to Catholic Faith those who had lost their way. In 1215  he went to Rome to submit his project to Pope Innocent III and, the following year, Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order. From that moment Dominic sent his Friars all over Europe, mainly to Paris and Bologna, the key universities of that time, since as they had to confute the heretical doctrines, the friars needed to have a . . .