History of St. Dominic: Founder of the Friars Preachers

Augusta Theodosia Drane

"The Saint who ‘studied only in the book of charity,’ who was ‘the lover of souls,’ because he was ‘the friend of Jesus Christ,’ who is invoked as ‘the most kind Father, Dominic,’ distinguished even among the saints for his ‘matchless serenity,’ and for the tender love that flowed from him as from ‘a well-spring of sweetness,’ hated heresy out of the very fulness of his love for souls; and the word VERITAS, which has become the motto of his Order, was in his eyes but another form of the yet sweeter word CHARITAS. This truth, dimmed though it may have become in our own age and country, is the real key to the character of St. Dominic, and of all other Saints in whom this enmity to that which opposes the truth is an integral portion of their love of God; a Divine instinct, marking their allegiance to His Supreme Sovereignty, and one which can alone explain both their heroic labours in defence of the faith, and the tears they wept over souls perishing in error.” (Summary taken from the Preface) (16 hr 28 min)