On Saturday, 6 September 2025, the Master of the Order of Preachers, Gerard Francisco Timoner III, O.P., confirmed the canonical election of Br. Robert Gay, OP, as Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Dominic in Italy.
Br. Robert studied Biological Sciences at Wye College, University of London, before earning a doctorate in Plant Physiology from the University of Glasgow. He later pursued philosophy and theology at Blackfriars Studium and completed further specialization studies in bioethics and medical law at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham.
Br. Robert has served as vocations promoter for the English Province, prior of Blackfriars in Oxford, and most recently as bursar and assistant novice master at the Dominican priory in Milan.
A convert to Catholicism, Br. Robert’s academic interests include the ethics of persistent vegetative state, ethical issues at the end of life, and the use of Thomistic virtue ethics in bioethics.
The Province of St. Dominic is one of three Dominican provinces in Italy, alongside the Province of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Roman Province of St. Catherine of Siena. Today 144 professed friars serve across the province in a variety of ministries.
