Vocation Discernment
Are you being called to become a priest or brother?
Click here, and discover what it means to become a preacher of truth!
Vocation Office
Western Dominican Province
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618-1626
(510)-596-1821
Our Vocations require a great deal of support, from the first moment they begin their novitiate until the last moments of their retirement. Please do conside visiting our donation page and helping form and sustain the priests and brothers who will serve you in the future, serve you now and have served you in the past.
Saints and Blesseds
The Order of Friars Preachers,
The Dominican Order,
has a beautiful history of learning, service and holiness manifested in its saints and blesseds of every age since its foundation by St. Dominic de Guzman. Do enjoy the periodic postings of such stories as are available from various sources, especially our own archives.
Religious Retirement
Our elderly and infirm friars receive the best care we have available to us, as in any family. We rely heavily on the donations of others for our own existence and thus when one of our own becomes incapable of further ministry due to age or infirmity, those same donations help us support the sometimes necessary special care required by such members of our communities.
We prefer to care for our elderly and infirm in our own houses so that the life of a religious community can be a part of a friars life as long as possible. This is also the most economical in many ways. We strive to use donations wisely. But sometimes a care facility is essential. As we, as a Province, do not benefit from the national collection for retired religious, we ask that you assist us in caring for these friars who have prayed, taught, served and ministered for so many years amomg the people of the Western United States and beyond.
Please, in your kindness, consider assisting us in this work of brotherly love.
Many thanks in advance.
Catholicism
It's just the right thing
Fr. Thomas Aquinas Patrick Fitzsimons, OP
In the earliest days of the province, it was not uncommon that a friar found himself bogged down with the practical matters of running a parish. Fr. Thomas had the practical goods of the church in mind as well as the spiritual. He invented a sanctuary lamp that burned for a month. This might seem trivial, but it helps us to understand that the priests of the missions often did not have extra help for the care of the physical structure of the church. This simple invention relieved the priest from continually checking and changing the sanctuary lamp.
His studies, on the other hand, were aimed at theological reasoning. He was recruited for the Dominicans of California in Ireland where he was born. He studied in Woodchester, England in 1867. He was one of the first members of the community of St. Dominic's in San Francisco. He died after 26 years of faithful service as a priest.
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
July 26, 1842 |
December 8, 1865 |
1871 |
November 8, 1897 |
XII: 29