Godzdogz

Blessed Jane of Orvieto was born in Italy in 1264. Jane was a lay Dominican, visionary and prophet, known for her life of deep prayer. Read more

A native from Provence in the South of France, Robert d'Uzes was probably born in 1263. He joined the Dominican Order thirty years later in Avignon and travelled in France, Germany and Italy. But he died suddenly in 1296 in Metz in Lorraine. From 1293 until his death, he was granted revelatory graces and had visions, which he put in writing in two books, the Book of Visions and the Book of Word. Read more

Martyrdom is a strangely familiar thing. As the act of dying in witness to, and fellowship with, Christ it sits at the pinnacle of Christian experience. We talk about it a lot and yet do we expect to experience it? Read more

As I settle into the comfy chair in the Student Master’s bedroom, with the buses rumbling outside along St Giles, it occurs to me that for the next half hour the roles will be reversed: I will be the one asking him about how he’s getting on in the Dominican life. He is the first to be interviewed in our new Godzdogz series on the life and work of the brethren today. Read more

St Albert is said to have been one of the last people to have known everything that was known in his day. That might be an exaggeration, but it’s certain that his interests and publications spanned every discipline of his time: from a best-selling work on rocks (De Mineralibus), through to geometry, astronomy, friendship, law, love, language, not to mention extensive commentaries on the Scriptures, it’s certainly fair to say Albert was universally learned.  Read more

Or should that be Jerome of Moray...? We know he worked in Paris and flourished in the second half of the thirteenth century. But who was he and where did he come from? Read more

Hugh of Saint-Cher was, quite literally, one of the most eminent of the early Dominicans. Born in France he went on to become Provincial of that country before being named Cardinal Priest of Santa Sabina, the Dominican Order's mother house, in Rome. Read more

Brothers can be a mixed bunch. In the Bible, alas, it starts badly for brothers... Read more