Encyclical Letter

At the approach of the happy day, when seven hundred years ago, that light of holiness, Dominic, passed from this world’s sorrows to the home of the blessed, it is a joy to Us who have so long been amongst his most devout clients, more especially since the day when We began to govern the Church of Bologna which religiously guards the Saint’s remains, it is a great joy to Us, We say, to be able to call upon the faithful from this Apostolic See to keep the memory of so great a saint. And in doing so we are not only yielding to feelings of personal piety, but also performing a duty of gratitude to the Founder and lawgiver and to his renowned family.Dominic was wholly and thoroughly a man of God : so too was he perfectly a man of the Church, and the Church has ever found him an unconquered champion of the Faith and his Order a stout bulwark of defence. Wherefore not only did Dominic in his days fortify the temple but he took thought for its lasting defence, according to the prophetic words of Honorius III, uttered when he confirmed the Order, “the Brethren of thy Order are to be the champions of the Faith and the true lights of the world.”