Blessed Jordan Of SaxonySuccessor to St. Dominic
Patron of Dominican Vocation
Blessed Jordan of Saxony was the second Master General of the Order of Preachers. St. Dominic had died in 1221, only five years after the establishment of his Order. Blessed Jordon"s election to succeed him came as something of a surprise. Only eighteen months before, Jordon had exchanged his distinguished professor's garb at the University of Paris for the Dominican habit. He had become the Dominican Master General after only a year and a half as a Dominican.
His election was providential. The Dominicans were still an infant order. Jordon was visionary, a builder, and most of all a youthful leader of the young. In years he was not actually a young man. But he had the youth of wisdom which calls to the young. His charming simplicity, his passion for learning, for organizing, for effecting great things, attracted well over a thousand young men and women to the Dominican habit.
In preaching to the young, he concentrated on the blessedness of community life, the joys of fraternal charity, the importance of oneness in work and prayer. Yet, he also emphasized the spirit of originality, the singleness of grace, the growth of personality, and the uniqueness of each apostle. These ideas, inherited from St. Dominic, were crystallized by Blessed Jordon. Through the centuries, they have always characterized Dominican training of future preachers.
Dominicans everywhere pray that through his intercession, youth may recognize the torch of Truth in the Order of St. Dominic, and embrace it as their own.
