Bl Reginald of Orleans OP

Feast Day: 12th February

The early years of every religious Order or movement are always characterised by great saints who light up the Church with the zeal and excitement of their discovery of a new way of following Christ. Blessed Reginald is one of the great early Dominicans who were acquainted with Dominic himself, and seemed to be given a share of the Founder’s spirit.

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St Thomas Aquinas OP

Feast Day: 28 January

Saint Thomas Aquinas is one of the greatest saints of the Dominican Order, whose works have left an indelible mark on Catholic Theology to this day. Saint Thomas was born toward the end of the year 1226 between Naples and Rome, close to the little town of Aquino, of which his father was Count. Going against the wishes of his parents, who had high hopes that he would join the Benedictine Order and live a very comfortable life, Thomas decided to join the Order of Preachers in 1224. The Dominican Order was at this time relatively young and the Order’s involvement with the great European universities allowed Thomas to avail himself of the intellectual renaissance taking place in Europe at the time. Having studied under another hugely influential Dominican saint, Albert the Great, Thomas was given the opportunity to think deeply about the world in which he lived and especially about the religious issues of the time. He arrived on the scene at a time when the great works of Aristotle were being re-discovered in Europe and there was much debate over the place of the Aristotelian corpus within the framework of Christian thought. In critically assessing the works of Aristotle available to him, Thomas showed how the insights which Aristotle exposed could be used within a Christian context.

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Feast Day: 7th October

Born at Penafort castle, near Barcelona in Spain, in 1175, Raymond was the gifted son of the count of Penafort. Due to his status and wealth, he was well educated and at the age of 20, was already a professor of philosophy at Barcelona university. He left Spain in 1210 to attend the university in Bologna, Italy, and complete his studies in canon law. By the age of 41 he had earned doctorates in both canon and civil law. He taught canon law in Bologna university for three years. It was here that he first met the Dominicans. He was attracted to the Order by the preaching of Blessed Reginald of Bologna and received the habit in 1222 in the Dominican Convent of Barcelona at the age of 47. Raymond had a strong devotion to Our Blessed Mother, and it was this devotion that led him to forgo worldly fame and become a Dominican.

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