St. Dominic, the founder of the order of Friars Preachers, was born in Spain in 1170, and died at Bologna, Italy, in 1221. In 1208 while the saint was at prayer Our Lady appeared to him, gave him the Rosary, and bade him go forth and preach. Beads in hand he led Catholic troops against the Albigensians and crushed that heresy. Countless souls were brought to grace by his words. His parents attributed his birth to the prayers of a holy Benedictine Abbot, Dominic of Silos; his mother saw in a vision her child in the shape of a little dog, holding a torch in his mouth. He became the great defender of Catholic Doctrine, and the opponent of heresies.

(Source: The New Roman Missal, Rev. F. X. Lasance)