Concept
The Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right founded in France, by a Spanish priest, saint and mystic, Dominic. It was approved by Pope Honorius III via the papal bull Religiosam vitam on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters OP after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay or secular Dominicans (formerly known as tertiaries). More recently there has been a growing number of associates of the religious sisters who are unrelated to the tertiaries. Founded to preach the gospel and to oppose heresy, the teaching activity of the order and its scholastic organisation placed it in the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. The order is famed for its intellectual tradition by having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. In 2018, there were 5,747 Dominican friars, including 4,299 priests. The order is headed by the master of the order who, , is Gerard Timoner. Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Siena are the co-patronesses of the Order. The Dominican Order came into being in the Middle Ages at a time when men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister. Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this ideal emerged two orders of mendicant friars: one, the Friars Minor, was led by Francis of Assisi; the other, the Friars Preachers, by Dominic of Guzman. Like his contemporary, Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization, and the quick growth of the Dominicans and Franciscans during their first century of existence confirms that conditions were favorable for the growth of the orders of mendicant friars. The Dominicans and other mendicant orders may have been an adaptation to the rise of the profit economy in medieval Europe.
