Today is the sweet feast of St. Dominic of Silos (c. 1000 - 1073). He was a real introvert, of good peasant stock, who kept solitude, worked hard, watched his flock and loved to read. The humble abbey he built at Silos in Castile (whither he emigrated, fleeing persecution in Navarre -- the king there, Garcia III, threatened him with death for refusing to turn monastery lands over to him) had a remarkable library. I like him already.
He was a reforming monk, later an abbot, but not one who placed himself aloof from the people or from manual work. He dug the garden himself and cleared the land, as well as encouraged health and growth in the new abbey. Folks could always come to him; it is said that there were no diseases known to man not cured by his prayers. He had a special love for the slaves and it is said he caused 300 of them to be freed. Not a bad record, that.
St. Dominic was his namesake, and thus the Order of Preachers have had a special devotion to Dominic of Silos ever since. Up until the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1931, the abbot of Silos brought the staff of St. Dominic to the royal house when the queen was in labor and left it there til the birth of her child, boy or girl. Now of course they haven't any use for such things. St. Dominic of Silos, pray for us.
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