Dominicans at the CCL

The Library is please to announce the Blessed Adrian Fortescue Chaper of the Dominican Laity has chosen to support it as one of its works of charity.

The Dominican Laity are men and women, singles and couples, living a Christian life with a Dominican spirituality in the secular world. They are committed to the apostolic mission of proclaiming the Gospel by word and work, living for God and neighbour, a life of prayer, penance and study, and the pursuit of justice and truth. The origins of the Dominican Laity date to 1285 when the seventh Master General, Munio de Zamora, devised a rule known as the "Third Order of Penance of St. Dominic." While the original emphasis of the Third Order was on performing and offering works of penance, over time it began to emphasise the importance of Catholic laymen having a solid faith and of sharing that same faith with the world. Among its most illustrious members the Third Order can count St. Catherine of Siena, St. Rose of Lima, St. Louis de Montfort, Bd. Pier Giorgio Frassati and of course, Bd. Adrian Fortescue.

Bd. Adrian Fortescue was born in 1476 and served in King Henry VIII'S campaign against France, after which he became part of the royal court. He served again in France and assisted at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, his first cousin, for the pope had not declared yet Katherine's marriage valid. In 1535 his eyes were opened to Henry's pretensions and true to the Catholic faith, he resisted signing the oath of supremacy. At the time he was a knight of St. John of Jerusalem and a Dominican tertiary. Condemned to the Tower in 1539, he was beheaded on July 9th of the same year.

** The motto of the Dominicans "Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare" is translated as "To Praise, To Bless, To Preach". Together with the order's other mottos are "Veritas" ("Truth") and "Contemplata aliis Tradere" ("To hand on to others what has been contemplated"), they embody what it is to be a Dominican.