St Dominic's Priory Church

St Dominic's Priory Church (formally named "Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic") between Hampstead and Camden Town, London NW5 4LB, is one of the largest Roman Catholic churches in London. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Location

The church and priory are in Southampton Road just south of Hampstead Heath and close to Belsize Park. The nearest stations are Belsize Park and Chalk Farm tube stations both on the Northern line Edgware branch, and Hampstead Heath railway station on London Overground, all about 15 minutes walk away.

History

The Dominican Friars came to the area in 1861 with a community of Friars in the Priory, a community of Dominican Sisters nearby in Constantine Road and a group of Lay Dominicans who meet each month at the Priory.

The priory was opened in 1867 and the Priory Church dates from 1883. The church was opened largely thanks to Countess Tasker, its great benefactress. The road leading down to the Priory (Tasker Road) was named in her memory.

Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic (Spanish: Santo Domingo), also known as Dominic of Osma and Dominic of Caleruega, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán (1170 – August 6, 1221), was a Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers.

Life

Birth and parentage

Dominic was born in Caleruega, halfway between Osma and Aranda de Duero in Old Castile, Spain. He was named after Saint Dominic of Silos, who is said to be the patron saint of hopeful mothers. The Benedictine abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos lies a few miles north of Caleruega.

In the earliest narrative source, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominic's parents are named Felix Guzman and Juanna of Aza. The story is told that before his birth his barren mother made a pilgrimage to the Abbey at Silos, and dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth, and "seemed to set the earth on fire". This story drew resonance from the fact that his order became known, after his name, as the Dominican order, Dominicanus in Latin which a play on words interpreted as Domini canis: "Dog of the Lord." Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and a maternal uncle who was an archbishop. The failure to name his parents is not unusual, since Jordan wrote a history of the Order's early years, rather than a biography of Dominic. A later source, still of the 13th century, also gives their names as Juana and Felix. Nearly a century after Dominic's birth, a local author asserted that Dominic's father was "vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo" ("an honoured and wealthy man in his village"). The travel narrative of Pero Tafur, written circa 1439 (about a pilgrimage to Dominic's tomb in Italy), states that Dominic's father belonged to the family de Guzmán, and that his mother belonged to the Aça or Aza family. Dominic's mother, Jane of Aza, was beatified by Pope Leo XII in 1828.

St Dominic (disambiguation)

Saint Dominic or St Dominic or Santo Domingo or San Domenico, all originally derived from St Dominic de Guzmán, the Roman Catholic founder of the order of Dominicans. His name was derived from Dominic, the Latin name for Sunday: it can also refer to the following:

People

Places

Priory Church

Priory Church is the name of many Christian churches which have had a connection with a priory.

Examples (arranged by order of country, then place-name) include:

France

Spain

United Kingdom

When monasteries were closed in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the churches were often given a new role as parish churches. At Oxford a priory church became the city's cathedral.

While priory churches are usually associated with former priories rather than active priories, a few priories have been constructed since the Reformation, for example St Dominic's Priory Church.