The Thirteenth century Church experienced a
renewal of spiritual life. The formation of the friars and women’s orders
birthed the way of renewal in faith. However, this will specifically focus on
the reform of basic spirituality due to St. Francis and St. Dominic.
Saint Francis of Assisi and Dominic Guzman became
the faces of the life of poverty, simplicity and love for God during the Middle
Ages of the Church. The thirteenth century Church was surrounded by a world of wealth[1].
The formation of these two orders, directed towards simplicity through the life
of poverty, opposed the lifestyle of the majority of the world.
Saint Francis grew up in a household of wealth and
opportunity. His love of money, parties and drinking grew with age, as this was
the surrounding and comforts of his childhood. However, once following the call
of God to “rebuild His church”, Francis immediately left his life of wealth and
requested the birth of the Franciscan order. “The Franciscan witness was
necessary in an age in which the Church was growing in wealthy and some clergy
remained corrupt.”[2] He sought to prove that
living simple is possible and necessary when following God.
Dominic Guzman also devoted his life to one of
simplicity, so that his life may focus entirely on the crucified Lord. Father
Dominic was especially overwhelmed with the motivation to convert those who
were swayed from the Catholic Church by the Albigensian heresy[3].
Dominic sought a way to preserve the monastic life, while having the ability to
travel “freely from town to town and university to university.”[4]
Dominic saw the best and ideal way to win back the hearts of the fallen faithful,
was through prayer and being a witness to the simple life, imitating Christ in
the Gospels. St. Dominic once said, “heretics are more easily won over by
examples of humility and virtue than by external display or a hail of words.”[5]
Dominicans were to “embrace poverty, profess the regular life and commit
yourselves [themselves] to the proclamation of the word of God, preaching
everywhere the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[6]
Both orders were birthed into the Church, during a
time of great turmoil. These orders renewed the Church and the hearts of many
who had fallen astray from God. They “encouraged men and women to seek holiness
not in the traditional way by renouncing the world, but by remaining in the
world and consecrating their everyday lives to God’s service.”[7]
Their focus was to denounce the abundance of earthly possessions which took the
place of God in the hearts of many during this century. These two orders stood
distinct from the neighboring Monastic orders within the Church. They reached
out to the laity of the Church, and sought their hand in renewing God’s people.
Up until the thirteenth century [the founding of the Franciscan and Dominican
Orders] the surrounding religious orders were secluded, focusing on individual
spirituality and study. These new orders reached out to the community and focused
on the betterment of society as a whole. This shift in religious life, founded
a renewal of a movement within the Church. To this day, these orders are among
the most influential religious orders within the Church.
[1] Alan Schreck, The Compact History of the Catholic Church (Cincinnati:
Servant Books, 2009), 58.
[2] Schreck, The Compact History of the Catholic Church ,
59.
[3] Schreck, The Compact History of the Catholic Church,
60.
[4] John Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages (Mahwah:
Paulist Press, 2005), 134.
[5] Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages,
135.
[6] Romanus Cessario, “The
Grace St. Dominic Brings to the World: A Fresh Look at Dominican Spirituality,”
Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and
Culture, (Spring 2012), 86.
[7] Bernard Hamilton, “Spreading
the Gospel in the Middle Ages,” History
Today, (Jan. 2003). www.web.b.ebscohost.com
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