Lands of Dominic Study Pilgrimage

This is a pilgrimage of study, prayer, and community through Spain, France, and Italy, celebrating the charism and founding of the Dominican Order of Preachers.  Walking with Saint Dominic from his birthplace in Caleruega, Spain, to the beginnings and flourishing of the Order in Prouilhe, Fanjeaux, and Toulouse, France, Bologna, Siena, and Rome, Italy pilgrims will see and hear history come alive through 800 years of living Dominican tradition.  Pilgrims come to know the struggles and dreams of Catherine of Siena as she welcomes la familia into her home and heart.  Rooted in medicant simplicity, this pilgrimage is food for the soul.

CALERUEGA  Birthplace of Dominic, only slightly changed since the twelfth century.  Today it is home to a novitiate of friars and to a monastery of Dominican nuns.

OSMA  The see city of Bishop Diego, friend and inspiration to the canon and missionary Dominic.

TOULOUSE  Foundation site of Friars of the Order of Preachers, where Peter Seila gave his property for the first home of the Order.  Burial place of Thomas Aquinas.

CARCASSONNE  Walled city of medieval castles and turrets, inviting all pilgrims to cross its drawbridges into the world of Dominic's time.

PROUILHE AND FANJEAUX  The Dominicans' point of origin, where Dominic preached, envisioned the Order, and founded the contemplative nuns.

BOLOGNA  Home to Dominic's tomb and to the convent of San Domenico, with its recently restored cell commemorating Dominic's death there.

SIENA  The city of Catherine Benincasa, whose presence can be sensed in her family home, in the cathedral, in the church of San Domenico, and on the hills where she walked.

FLORENCE  The locale of the lives and missions of Fra Angelico, Savonarola and St. Antoninus.  The city of flowers and creative humanity.

ROME  Centered in St. Peter's and the Vatican, Rome also invites the pilgrims to the sanctuary of Santa Sabina, the ancient priory and church of San Clemente, the tomb of Catherine of Siena, and the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.