Blessed Clement of Dunblane,
Feast day: March 19
Died 1256/58.
One of the pioneers about whom we hear little is the colorful and resourceful Bishop Clement of Dunblane, who received his habit from Saint Dominic's hands and introduced the Dominicans as he preached in Scotland. The monasteries he founded within a few years of the beginning of the Dominican Order served the Church well, and the Church annals are begemmed with the names of the people who made history in that interesting country.
We read the names of Robert Bruce and Lord Douglas on the rolls of benefactors of the Blackfriars. James Beaton, archbishop of Saint Andrews, fled for sanctuary to the Dominican church in 1517; and in 1554, John Knox was called to give an account of his strange doctrines in the Blackfriars Church of Edinburgh.
Clement was Scottish by birth, and having met Saint Dominic at the University of Paris and being received into the order, he was vocal and active in bringing the friars to his homeland. Tradition holds that the Scottish king, Alexander II, in Paris on a diplomatic mission, made a personal appeal to Saint Dominic for missionaries. It is an historical fact that this monarch was their first benefactor when the mission band at last arrived, shortly after Dominic's death.
The priory in the lovely, seaside town of Ayr was founded in 1230, and seven other large houses soon followed. There is record of transactions with the rulers of the region at this time, and, a few years later, King Robert Bruce granted the Dominicans the privilege of grinding their grain at his mill.
Clement was appointed bishop of Dunblane in 1233, by Pope Gregory IX, a devoted friend of Saint Dominic. He worked in this see for 23 years, and, according to an old record, he "labored with unflagging zeal to uproot superstition and destroy vice, to make true and solid piety known and practiced, and to draw the faithful entrusted to his charge to the imitation of all the virtues of Christian perfection, as he himself fulfilled al the duties of a watchful and loving pastor"--a description of a bishop that can hardly be bettered. He is described as being poor himself, and the father of the poor, and all the old writers speak of his zeal in restoring the ruined churches and the neglected rights of the Church.
According to surviving records, he must have been a busy man, this rugged missionary in an equally rugged land. He rebuilt Dunblane Cathedral, visited tirelessly among the outlying regions of his diocese, setting things in order, and solicited most of the funds for reconstruction himself. He was appointed on several papal commissions, once to inquire into the heroic virtues of Margaret of Scotland, another time to determine the validity of a bishop's appointment. He was sent to collect alms for the Holy Land in 1247, at a time when he badly needed the money to rebuild his own diocese.
Through his influence, the episcopal see was transferred from the Isle of Iona, which was frequently inaccessible and always in danger from stormy seas, to a place where it could be readily in touch with the rest of Scotland. He attended the general chapter of the Order held in London in 1250. At one time he had to pronounce a sentence of excommunication on all those who had tried to murder the king.
In spite of these varied and absorbing labors, we are interested to find that he wrote at least three books: a life of Saint Dominic, a book on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and the history of the Dominican Order in Scotland.
When Clement died, he left a legacy of personal holiness so great that even a Protestant historian would say of him: "This man was an excellent preacher, learned above many of that time, and of singular integrity of conversation"
Feast day: March 19
Died 1256/58.
One of the pioneers about whom we hear little is the colorful and resourceful Bishop Clement of Dunblane, who received his habit from Saint Dominic's hands and introduced the Dominicans as he preached in Scotland. The monasteries he founded within a few years of the beginning of the Dominican Order served the Church well, and the Church annals are begemmed with the names of the people who made history in that interesting country.
We read the names of Robert Bruce and Lord Douglas on the rolls of benefactors of the Blackfriars. James Beaton, archbishop of Saint Andrews, fled for sanctuary to the Dominican church in 1517; and in 1554, John Knox was called to give an account of his strange doctrines in the Blackfriars Church of Edinburgh.
Clement was Scottish by birth, and having met Saint Dominic at the University of Paris and being received into the order, he was vocal and active in bringing the friars to his homeland. Tradition holds that the Scottish king, Alexander II, in Paris on a diplomatic mission, made a personal appeal to Saint Dominic for missionaries. It is an historical fact that this monarch was their first benefactor when the mission band at last arrived, shortly after Dominic's death.
The priory in the lovely, seaside town of Ayr was founded in 1230, and seven other large houses soon followed. There is record of transactions with the rulers of the region at this time, and, a few years later, King Robert Bruce granted the Dominicans the privilege of grinding their grain at his mill.
Clement was appointed bishop of Dunblane in 1233, by Pope Gregory IX, a devoted friend of Saint Dominic. He worked in this see for 23 years, and, according to an old record, he "labored with unflagging zeal to uproot superstition and destroy vice, to make true and solid piety known and practiced, and to draw the faithful entrusted to his charge to the imitation of all the virtues of Christian perfection, as he himself fulfilled al the duties of a watchful and loving pastor"--a description of a bishop that can hardly be bettered. He is described as being poor himself, and the father of the poor, and all the old writers speak of his zeal in restoring the ruined churches and the neglected rights of the Church.
According to surviving records, he must have been a busy man, this rugged missionary in an equally rugged land. He rebuilt Dunblane Cathedral, visited tirelessly among the outlying regions of his diocese, setting things in order, and solicited most of the funds for reconstruction himself. He was appointed on several papal commissions, once to inquire into the heroic virtues of Margaret of Scotland, another time to determine the validity of a bishop's appointment. He was sent to collect alms for the Holy Land in 1247, at a time when he badly needed the money to rebuild his own diocese.
Through his influence, the episcopal see was transferred from the Isle of Iona, which was frequently inaccessible and always in danger from stormy seas, to a place where it could be readily in touch with the rest of Scotland. He attended the general chapter of the Order held in London in 1250. At one time he had to pronounce a sentence of excommunication on all those who had tried to murder the king.
In spite of these varied and absorbing labors, we are interested to find that he wrote at least three books: a life of Saint Dominic, a book on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and the history of the Dominican Order in Scotland.
When Clement died, he left a legacy of personal holiness so great that even a Protestant historian would say of him: "This man was an excellent preacher, learned above many of that time, and of singular integrity of conversation"
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