By Christina Gray
On the occasion of the 175th jubilee of the Dominican province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, Catholic San Francisco offers a brief history of what is often referred to as the Western province. We’ll also look at other Dominican branches that have sprung from it and have collectively contributed to the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The Western province includes California, where the Order of Preachers took root in 1850, as well as Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii.
It began in San Francisco
In 1845, two Dominican friars, Father Joseph Sadoc Alemany and Father Francis Sadoc Vilarrasa, arrived in the U.S. from Spain. In 1850, as California’s population boomed with gold prospectors, Pope Pius IX designated Father Alemany as the much-needed first bishop for the state of California. The pope famously told him, “Where others are drawn by gold, you must carry the cross.”
On Dec. 6 of that year, Bishop Alemany and Father Vilarrasa along with Belgian-born Mother Mary Goemaere, also a Dominican, arrived at the port of San Francisco intent on teaching and preaching for the salvation of souls in the American West. Thus began the Dominican Friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus and California’s first order of women religious.
The Dominican Friars of the Most Holy Name of Jesus serve parishes and campus ministries, international missions, special ministries for evangelization, prayer, education, and service to the poor and sick. The Western province is also home to the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology in Berkeley, which prepares religious, clerics and laity for academic and apostolic vocations. St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland is the house of formation for Dominican friars studying for the priesthood at the Berkeley school and St. Dominic Priory in San Francisco is home to the novitiate of the Western Province.
Dominican by definition
We celebrate the 175th jubilee of the Dominican Friars of the Most Holy Name of Jesus by honoring its continuing influence within the Archdiocese of San Francisco. At the same time, we recognize the contributions of the other local Dominican branches that have evolved from it. Although separate in terms of governance, these branches share in the charism of preaching and are united under the Master of the Order of Preachers.
The friars
Friars include both priests and brothers. Both profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. While priests are ordained for the ministry of the sacraments, brothers minister according to their talents and abilities in other ways. Ministries among the friars include itinerant preaching, parish and campus ministry, teaching in schools and universities, catechetical formation, social work, health care, the arts, internal administration and much more. There are currently 140 friars in the Western province. They live communal lives in Dominican priories such as St. Dominic Priory in San Francisco houses like St. Raymond in Menlo Park, and St Albert’s in Oakland.
The nuns
The very first foundation by St. Dominic was a monastery of nuns in Prouille, France. Nuns are cloistered. Their days are marked by silence, the necessary climate for contemplation, and continuous prayer for the world and for the success of the friars’ preaching. Their days are also defined by the Liturgy of the Hours, Mass and devotions such as perpetual adoration. Nuns usually enter a monastery and remain there for the rest of their lives. Like the friars, they profess the vow of obedience and embrace poverty and chastity. The Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery, established in 1921, are a local example. Located minutes from Vallombrosa Retreat Center, the nuns support themselves by producing hosts for use at Mass, as well as vestments and other religious articles.
The sisters
Dominican sisters are active, vowed religious women who are organized into individual congregations. The basis of their activity is the primary ministry of preaching, although it may manifest itself in many forms including teaching, missionary work and social work.
Mother Mary Goemaere, who also disembarked in San Francisco 175 years ago, was dedicated to the Catholic education of children in what then was a new and uncivilized part of the world. Dominican sisters have established communities and served at many schools and hospitals locally, including the now-closed St. Rose Academy (on the St. Dominic parish campus).
The Dominican Sisters of San Rafael founded Dominican College and St. Dominic School in Marin County (both now independently run). They continue their ministry today in schools and hospitals, parishes, social service agencies, day programs for those without homes, prisons and more. The Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, located in Fremont (originally part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco), were founded in 1876. Today, they serve the students of St. James and St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception Schools in the Mission District, as well as Immaculate Conception Academy-Cristo Rey.
The Dominican Sisters of Oakford arrived from South Africa in 1955 to work with the friars at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist from Michigan have been present as teachers and campus ministers at Marin Catholic High School since 2011.
The diocesan priests
The Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic are made up of diocesan priests who are formally affiliated to the Order of Preachers through a rule of life they profess under the overall direction of the Dominican friars. The origins of the Dominican fraternities can be traced from the Dominican third order secular, which then included both priests and laypersons as members. The first member of the Third Order was Fr. Louis Lootens in 1860. With the cessation of terminological references to first, second and third orders in the Dominican order in 1968, there ensued the creation of separate rules for the laity and for the priests and their corresponding constitution as distinct fraternities. Now existing as a separate association from that of the laity, and with its own distinct rule to follow, the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic continue to be guided by the order in embracing the gift of the spirituality of St. Dominic in the unique context of the diocesan priesthood.
While the order provides them with these spiritual aids and directs them to their own sanctification, it leaves them free for the complete service of the local Church, under the jurisdiction of their own bishop.
The Dominican laity
Very early in the foundations of the order, groups of laypeople began to associate with the friars and nuns. These associations grew into what we now call the Dominican laity. There are 37 fraternities in the Western Province with two fraternities in the archdiocese. They are called to preach in the secular sphere, the marketplace or wherever their station in life finds them. They make promises to follow the rule and statutes of the Dominican laity, which include meeting on a regular basis, studying and praying the Liturgy of the Hours. They engage in active ministries such as service to the poor, teaching, writing and spiritual counseling. They endeavor to live lives of simplicity and generosity.
Visit opwest.org to learn more.
Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.
