Aug 18 – Bl Manez de Guzman, OP, (1170-1235) – Older brother of the Holy Founder

November 4, 2015 techdecisions

-by Br Matthew Jarvis, OP, English Province

“Brothers can be a mixed bunch. In the Bible, alas, it starts badly for brothers…

The older brother Cain murders Abel; the younger brother Jacob tricks Esau out of his birthright; and Joseph is left for dead by his eleven brothers. But, on the other hand, brotherly love can overcome great adversity. Joseph forgives his brothers and saves their lives. Look, too, at the early disciples of Christ: the brothers Peter and Andrew, James and John (sons of Zebedee), among many others. For them, being brothers in Christ was more important than consanguinity; yet it is a beautiful thing when the two brotherhoods overlap. After all, the love between blood brothers or sisters should point to, and school us in, the more perfect love between brothers and sisters in Christ. So, as it is written (Heb 13:1), let brotherly love continue!

Both kinds of brotherly love are evident at the very beginning of the Dominican Order. St Dominic was the youngest of three brothers. His eldest brother, Anthony (Antonio), was also a priest. But it is the middle brother, Manez (also spelt Manés, Mannes or Mames), who interests us here. Manez was old enough to have begun his own training for the priesthood when Dominic was born; but later, he joined Dominic in his preaching mission to the Albigensians. When the Order of Preachers was formally approved by the Pope, Manez was one of the first to receive the habit and make profession in the hands of Dominic, his younger brother.

Manez proved immediately to be active and devoted Dominican friar. He was among those sent by Dominic to Paris in the early dispersal of the brethren in 1217; there Manez was one of the founders of the St Jacques community. In 1219, he was sent to Madrid to be chaplain to the first community of Dominican nuns in Spain. After many more years of service, he died in 1238 and was buried at the Cistercian monastery in Gumiel de Izán.

We know very little else about the life of Manez. His contemporaries reported that he was a gentle and effective preacher, a prayerful and discreet friar. He was inclined towards the contemplative life, but did not hesitate to attend obediently to whatever task he was set. Friar Rodrigo de Cerrato called him a ‘gentle, humble, cheerful and kind and ardent preacher’.

This hiddenness and humility of Manez marks him out as a true brother of Dominic. If the greatness of Dominic owes much to his humility, his giving way to the brethren and the Order’s mission above his own personal status, then Manez has perhaps an equal claim to greatness: he devotedly served God in the Order his younger brother founded, not seeking his own advantage or aggrandisement but simply the salvation of souls.

Manez showed no sign of jealousy or sibling rivalry. After Dominic’s canonisation in 1234, he travelled to their hometown of Caleruega to persuade the people to build a church in his older brother’s honour. Although beatified by Gregory XVI, Manez has faded into the background of the Order’s history. But that is what he would have wanted. Dominicans exist to preach Jesus Christ, not themselves; and that is why Manez was a great Dominican.”

Blessed Mannes, an older brother of Saint Dominic, was born at Caleruega, Spain, about 1170. He was among his younger brother’s first followers and later assisted in establishing the priory of Saint-Jacques at Paris in 1217. In 1219 he was entrusted with the care of the Dominican nuns at Madrid. According to an early source he was “a contemplative and holy man, meek and humble, joyful and kind, and a zealous preacher.” He died at the Cistercian monastery of San Pedro at Garniel d’Izan near Caleruega about the year 1235.

The second reading taken from the supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours for the Order of Preachers:

From a letter of our Holy Father Dominic to the nuns of Madrid.

“Mannes has worked so hard to bring you to this holy state of life.”
Brother Dominic, Master of the Preachers, to the dear prioress of Madrid and all the nuns in the community, greetings. May you progress every day!

I am delighted at the fervor with which you follow your holy way of life, and thank God for it. God has indeed freed you from the squalor of this world.

Fight the good fight, my daughters, against our ancient foe, fight him insistently with fasting, because no one will win the crown of victory without engaging in the contest in the proper way. Until now you had no place where you could practice your religious life, but now you can no longer offer that excuse. By the grace of God, you have buildings that are quite suitable enough for religious observance.

From now on I want you to keep the silence in the prescribed places, namely, the refectory, the dormitory and the oratory, and to observe your Rule fully in everything else too. Let none of the sisters go outside the gate, and let nobody come in, except for the bishop or any other ecclesiastical superior, who comes to preach to you or to visitate. Be obedient to your prioress. Do not chatter with each other, or waste your time gossiping.

Because we can offer you no help in temporal affairs, we do not want to burden you by allowing any of the brethren any authority to receive women or make them members of your community; only the prioress shall have such authority, on the advice of the community.

Furthermore, I instruct my dear brother Mannes, who has worked so hard to bring you to this holy state of life, to organize you and make whatever arrangements he considers useful, to enable you to conduct yourselves in the most religious and holy way. I also give him power to visitate you and correct you, and, if necessary, to remove the prioress from office, provided that a majority of the nuns agree. I also authorize him to grant you any dispensations he thinks appropriate.

Farewell in Christ.”

Love,
Matthew

Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom