Saint Dominic, OP (Spanish: Santo Domingo; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (Spanish: [ɡuθˈman]), was a Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he and his order are traditionally credited with spreading and popularizing the rosary.
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Saint Dominic in the context of Dominicans
Dominicans (Spanish: Dominicanos [dominiˈkanos]), also known as Quisqueyans (Spanish: Quisqueyanos [kiskeˈʝanos]), are an ethno-national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusion of mostly European (mainly Spanish), and native Taino, and African elements, this is a fusion that dates as far back as the 1500s, resulting in the vast majority of Dominicans being of mixed-race heritage. Dominicans trace their roots mainly to these three sources, the vast majority being mixed, and smaller numbers being predominantly European or African. The demonym Dominican is derived from Santo Domingo (Spanish equivalent Saint Dominic) and directly inherited from the name of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, which was synonymous with the island of Hispaniola as a whole and centered in the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of modern Dominican Republic. Recent immigrants and their children, who are legal citizens of the Dominican Republic, can be considered "Dominican" by nationality but not ethnicity due to not having ancestral roots in the country.
Saint Dominic in the context of Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers (Latin: Ordo Prædicatorum, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by the Castilian priest 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 Praedicatorum, meaning 'of the Order of Preachers'. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay or secular Dominicans (formerly known as tertiaries). More recently, there have been a growing number of associates of the religious sisters who are unrelated to the tertiaries.
Founded to preach the gospel and to oppose heresy, the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organisation placed it at the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. The order is famed for its intellectual tradition and for having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. In 2018, there were 5,747 Dominican friars, including 4,299 priests. The order is headed by the master of the order who, as of 2022, is Gerard Timoner III. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi are the Principal Patrons of the order.