Dominic Loricatus

Saint Dominic Loricatus, O.S.B. Cam.
Born995
Luceolis, Duchy of Spoleto
Died1060
Poggio San Vicino, Marche of Camerino
Venerated inRoman Catholicism
(Camaldolese Order)
FeastOctober 14
Attributeshis coat of mail lying on the ground

Dominic Loricatus, O.S.B. Cam. (Italian: San Domenico Loricato; 995 - 1060) was an Italian monk known for his extraordinary penitential self-mortification.

Biography

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia,

[Loricatus] was born about the year 990 and was destined for the priesthood by his parents, who bribed a bishop to ordain him before the canonical age. After living for a few years as a secular priest, he was struck with contrition for the sin of simony to which he had been a party and became a monk. This was probably at the hermitage of Luceoli, as we are told that he placed himself under the direction of John of Monte Feltro. Here he remained till about 1044, when, desiring to increase the severity of his penances, he came to Fonte-Avellana to be the disciple of St. Peter Damian. The record of his cuirass, he wore habitually iron rings and chains round his limbs, and loaded with this weight he daily prostrated himself a thousand times or recited whole psalters with arms extended in the form of a cross. Day and night he lacerated his body with a pair of scourges.

His vita was written by St. Peter Damian (at the request of Pope Alexander II), who admired him and called himself his "teacher and lord" (though some scholars refer to Dominic as Damian's "disciple"). Damian himself promoted penitential self-mortification. Dominic wore a mail shirt or lorica on his body as a kind of hairshirt, which gave rise to his name, Loricatus.

Dominic carried his scourge (possibly made of birch) with him at all time, flogging himself at bedtime. He is said to have performed these lashes while reciting the psalms, with 100 lashes for each psalm. 30 psalms (3000 strokes) made penance for one year of sin; the entire psalter redeemed 5 years, while 20 psalters (300,000 strokes) redeemed one hundred years.[citation needed] Dominic performed the "one hundred years penance" during Lent. The wounds he inflicted on himself were equated with the stigmata by Peter Damian: "Our Dominic, however, bore in body the stigmata of Jesus, and fixed the sign of the cross not only on his forehead, but printed it on every part of his body ... His whole life was for him a Good Friday crucifixion."

He died at the Hermitage of San Vicino, near San Severino Marche in 1060, where he had been appointed prior by Peter Damian the previous year, where his remains are still venerated. His feast is celebrated by the Camaldolese Order on October 14.

Attributes and afterlife

Frederick Charles Husenbeth notes various elements: a coat of mail lying on the ground, or giving a coat of mail to a beggar.

The Glazier Collection in the Morgan Library & Museum holds an "Italian Sacramentary for the use of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna", supposedly used by Peter Damian and Dominic Loricatus, and originally a "rather plain book". After Dominic's death it became a relic, and was given silver and ivory covers in the 12th century: "The silver work was, presumably, done in the twelfth century by south Italian smiths under strong Byzantine influence, and it incorporates earlier ivory plaques which came not from a book cover but from an ivory casket made during the early eleventh century in Italy on the model of similar Byzantine caskets. The book was for years in the church of Santa Anna of Frontale, but it disappeared and lay, during at least part of this time, in the Rütschi collection, Zurich."

His vigorous embrace of self-flagellation was discussed by Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, after introducing the church's calculation of penance:

By a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three thousand lashes; and such was the skill and patience of a famous hermit, Saint Dominic of the iron Cuirass, that in six days he could discharge an entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice was accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiate on his own back the sins of his benefactors.

Vita

References

  1. 1 2 Husenbeth, Frederick Charles (1860). Emblems of Saints, by Which They Are Distinguished in Works of Art (2 ed.). Longon: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. pp. 48, 200.
  2. ↑ Public Domain Toke, Leslie (1913). "Fonte-Avellana". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  3. ↑ Jasper, Kathryn (2024). Land and Reform at the Hermitage of Fonte Avellana, Ca. 1035-1072. Cornell UP. pp. 60, 156. ISBN 9781501777615.
  4. ↑ Cushing, Kathleen G. (2008). "Pueri, Iuvenes, and Viri: Age and Utility in the Gregorian Reform". The Catholic Historical Review. 94 (3): 435–449.
  5. ↑ Smith, Katherine Allen (2008). "Saints in Shining Armor: Martial Asceticism and Masculine Models of Sanctity, ca. 1050-1250". Speculum. 83 (3): 572–602. Smith describes how the term referred to a breast plate in classical Roman times, and later also became the term for a shirt of mail; the idea of such physical armor transferred to the spiritual realm is biblical and is expressed for instance by Paul, Ephesians 6.13-17.
  6. 1 2 Cooper, William M. (1869). Flagellation and the Flagellants: A History of the Rod in All Countries from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. John Camden Hotten. pp. 49, 477.
  7. ↑ From Peter Damian, Letters 91-120, vol. 5, Letter 109; quoted in Muessig, Carolyn (2013). "Signs of Salvation: The Evolution of Stigmatic Spirituality Before Francis of Assisi". Church History. 82 (1): 40–68.
  8. ↑ Plummer, John (1959). "The Glazier Collection of Manuscripts". The Burlington Magazine. 101 (674): 193–195.
  9. ↑ Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (PDF). Vol. V. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. pp. 2476–77.