Roman Catholics will observe Sunday, Aug. 8, the feast day of Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo), the revered founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and the initiator of the beautiful prayer in honor of the Blessed Mother, the Holy Rosary.
The Santo Domingo Church (National Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary), on Quezon Avenue, Quezon City will stream live the feast day Misa ng Bayan (community mass) at 10 a.m. and at 4 p.m. Novena masses were held from July 30 to Aug. 7.
The Diocese of Cubao has cancelled all public masses from July 31 to Aug. 20 due to the ongoing enhanced community quarantine. The public masses will resume on Aug. 21 “if conditions improve” said Cubao Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco in a circular.
This is the second year that no public masses were held on the feast day of St. Dominic. At about this time last year, Metro Manila was under the modified enhanced community quarantine and upon the instructions of the Diocese of Cubao, the public were not allowed to attend the liturgical services.
Commemorative masses in honor of St. Dominic will also be celebrated by the Prelature of Batanes Babuyanes, the civil province of Batanes and the Babuyan Island group; and the Diocese of Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.
Saint Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and the Dominican Republic. On his feast day, the Church encourages the faithful to offer special prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to recite the Holy Rosary, which the Spanish saint helped promote after it was given to him by the Holy Mother during an apparition in the year 1208.
St. Dominic’s major shrine is the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy where he died on Aug. 6, 1221.