"THE Friars Preachers were the first to make the pursuit of knowledge an integral part of their monastic program and scheme. Amongst the older orders there was scarcely one which countenanced study for its own sake. The principal business of the primitive monk was, by corporal labor, fasting and strict monastic observance to become "a hunter hunting out the beast in man." Nearly all intellectual effort was confined to the reading of the Scriptures and the Fathers and the copying of manuscripts. St. Dominic, in founding his Institute, realized that if his sons were to be preachers of the Word, if they were to go down into the busy marts of men to challenge the new doctrines that were being hawked about, it was necessary that they should be well equipped, not only with sacred knowledge but also with the secular learning by which men set such store. And for this reason the Order of Friars Preachers has ever played a notable part in the history of education. Born in the golden age of universities, its children were from the first men of learning. To promote learning, every dispensation, save such as would have constituted a downright violation of the law, was conceded."
~Fr. J. B. O'Connor, O.P., P. G.: St. Dominic and the Order of Preachers.
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| Virgin and Child with Sts. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas, by Fra Angelico. Detached fresco transferred to canvas, c. 1445; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. |
