December 20
The saints and feasts remembered on December 20, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint Dominic of Silos
Abbot who stood up to a king and rebuilt the ruined monastery of Silos
Dominic was born around the year 1000 in Cañas, a village in La Rioja, then part of the kingdom of Navarre. His early biographer says he spent his youth looking after his family's sheep. He became a priest, then a monk at the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, where he was made prior.
When King García of Navarre demanded part of the monastery's property, Dominic refused to give up what belonged to the community, and the king drove him out. He found refuge in Castile, where King Ferdinand I made him abbot of Silos in 1041. It was a poor, run-down house with only a handful of monks. Dominic patiently rebuilt both its buildings and its common life, and books were copied there again. Tradition also remembers him for working to free Christians held captive.
He died on 20 December 1073. The monastery soon took his name, and monks still pray there today, in a place known for its Romanesque cloister and its Gregorian chant.
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.
Psalm 127:1 · BSB
A prayer
Faithful God, you gave Dominic of Silos the courage to stand firm before a king and the patience to rebuild a community that had almost disappeared. Give us that same courage and patience: help us to protect what you have entrusted to us, to repair what is broken around us, and to work for the freedom of those in chains. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.