ritten in Carcassonne on April 17, 1207, and addressed
“to the prioress and nuns recently converted by
the exhortation and example of friar Dominic of Osma and
his companions,” a letter from the Archbishop of
Narbonne is the first document to mention the existence
of a community of women at the church of St. Mary of Prouilhe,
situated at the foot of the fortified village of Fanjeaux
(In Aude, France).
Did
St. Dominic have it in mind to found a feminine branch
of the Order when he gathered into community some young
women he had rescued from the Catharist heresy when he
first began to preach in Languedoc? In his Libellus Jordan
of Saxony speaks in these terms: “The Bishop of
Osma established a monastery for gathering together noble
women whose parents, because of their poverty, had entrusted
to the heretics the education of their daughters. The
house, situated between Fanjeaux and Montreal, in the
place known as Prouilhe, still exists. These servants
of God continue to offer worship acceptable to their Creator,
in holiness of life and in the purity of innocence –
a life which is conducive to salvation for themselves,
an example to others, a joy to the angels, and pleasing
to God.” (Libellus 27)
Already
we see that Jordan indicates the manner in which the “preaching”
of the daughters of Saint Dominic is to be understood:
“their life is an example to others.” The
foundation at Prouilhe by Diego of Osma and Dominic would
have unforeseen ramifications. The pressing need to find
a place of refuge for these women, added to Dominic’s
zeal for souls would combine to form an organic and complex
vision of religious life for men and women. Indeed, the
Sisters of Prouilhe, whose monastery would serve as reference
for the nuns of the Second Order, were indisputably founded
before the Friars Preachers.
The
date of the establishment at Prouilhe can be determined
with a fair amount of accuracy; it occurred no earlier
than March of 1207. Dominican tradition attributes the
choice of the place to a sign from heaven, going so far
as to fix the date at July 22, 1206, feast of Saint Mary
Magdalen. It is a fact that Diego of Osma put together
in that place a first group of Sisters with their prioress.
He then gave Dominic spiritual charge over them in order
to firmly institute their religious life according to
a Rule. This Diego did before leaving for Spain, specifically
with the intention of finding money for the erection of
the monastery buildings. (Libellus 28)
From then on, wherever Dominic went, he established religious
life for women, trying to have friars close by as well,
in order to form a veritable family. In 1215 in Toulouse
Dominic opened a house for poor converted women, but especially
in his own country, in Madrid, then later in the course
of his ministry in Italy, did he endeavor to found monasteries.
In 1218, while travelling in Spain he gave the habit of
the Order to a group of Sisters in Madrid. In Rome Dominic
received the mission to regroup and reform nuns who were
more or less dispersed throughout the city and its environs.
On his request Pope Honorius III called on eight Sisters
of Prouilhe to establish regular observance in the monastery
Dominic had founded near the Church of San Sisto. In Bologna,
where Dominic would die on August 6, 1221, plans for the
construction of a monastery were already underway, Diane
D’Andalo having made religious profession into the
hands of Dominic. The presence of the nuns within the
Order of Preachers is, therefore, obviously inscribed
in the vision of its founder. 
(Source:
Duval, André: Dominicaines moniales de l’Ordre
des Prêcheurs, C.I.F. Editions, Paris, 1993. Bedouelle,
Guy: Dominique ou la grâce de la Parole. Fayard/Mame,
1982).
