The
Commemoration of Saint Dominic of Soriano
This
liturgical feast commemorates the miraculous appearance of a taumaturgic
painting of Saint Dominic in the Convent of San Domenico in Soriano Calabria. On
15 September, 1530, three mysterious women appeared a few hours before Matins
and one of them entrusted into the hands of the sacristan a roll of canvass to
be presented to the House Superior. The friars found out later that the canvass
had a painting of Saint Dominic. It was later revealed that the three ladies
were in fact the Virgin Mary accompanied by Saint Catherine of Alexandria and
Saint Mary Magdalene.
When the
picture was exposed to public veneration, a multitude of prodigies took place,
the account of which fills volumes. No less than sixteen hundred of these
miracles, juridically attested, took place within the space of seventy-eight
years. Pope Innocent XII., in the year 1644, granted a festival in
commemoration of this event and of the vast number of miracles through this
holy painting.
The devotion
to San Domenico in Soriano became very popular in Southern Italy and since
Calabria was then under the Spanish crown, the friars also brought the devotion
to Spain and to the Western Hemisphere and even as far as the Philippines and
to China. In Spain, the first of the
many altars in honor of the miraculous icon was built at the old conventual
Church of Santo Tomas of Madrid and became the center of its devotion in the
Spanish capital. Devotional pamphlets, devotionaries as well as prints were
made to divulge this devotion among the faithful. In Poland the devotion was
also very popular and even till today, the images of the picture can still be
seen in many of the priories and churches.
On September
15,1870, just five days before the Roman occupation by the troops of Victor
Emmanuel, a new prodigy took place at Soriano. A wooden life size statue of
Saint Dominic suddenly seen to move like
a preacher in the pulpit ; it advanced and drew back ; the right arm rose and
fell; the countenance became animated, sometimes assuming a severe and
threatening aspect, at other times appearing sad, or again full of sweetness
and reverence as it turned towards the picture of our Lady of the Rosary. This
extraordinary spectacle lasted for an hour and a half, and was witnessed by
about two thousand persons. A juridical inquiry was ordered by the local
ordinary and was proclaimed to be miraculous.
The extraordinary event was announced to the Order in a circular letter
by the Master of the Order, Father Alexander Vincent Jandel, admonishing the
brethren to be conscientious of their vocation and the will towards the
restoration of religious observance. The
prodigy in some way, confirmed the policies of restoration which enabled the
Order to enjoy a great degree of rebirth in the early XX century.
This feast
was suppressed when the memoria of our Lady of Sorrows was moved to this date.
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