I love the psalm today, that declares that heaven and earth are full of the glory of the Lord. It goes on to say: “Let the kings of the earth and all peoples, the princes and all the judges of the earth, young men too, and maidens, old men and boys” all praise the Lord.
For the Flocknote reflection today, I wrote about three officially declared saints and one other Catholic faithful whose feast days we celebrate this week. This included: Walker Percy, St Damien of Molokai, and St Simon Stock. The fourth saint is the saint whose feast day we celebrate today: Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1019 – 5/12/1109) was born into a peasant family in the province of Burgo in north central Spain in 1019. As a young man, he applied to be a Benedictine monk two different times, but was turned down. Instead, he lived his life as a young man as a hermit in a cave. He worked with the newly arrived bishop in the area to combat a plague of locusts. The bishop was very impressed with young Dominic and he was ordained a Diocesan priest. He spent a lot of his priesthood improving the pilgrimage route, building bridges, clearing land, and even building an alternative causeway route on the pilgrimage route of St James that is now part of the modern route that I have hiked in Spain. The town that he founded on the Camino is named after him and remains one of the highlights of the pilgrimage trail. Unfortunately, the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada was one of the hardest hit places in Spain during the pandemic. We pray for healing for this town. There are actually coops of roosters in the cathedral named after him where he is interred in the crypt, based on a legend that is told about him. If the rooster crows while you are in mass there, reportedly you will have good luck on the rest of the Camino. What I love about Santo Domingo de la Calzada is that he shows how after doors close in our lives, we can find other ways to serve the Lord.
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