A man marked by light, St. Dominic de Guzman, was born in Caleruega, Burgos in 1170. His mission is to give light throughout the world, announcing the Word of God through preaching. Dominic preached incessantly. His passion was to preach Jesus Christ for universal salvation. In 1215 he established the first house of the nascent Order in Toulouse and the same year he went to Rome to request the Pope’s approval, an approval that was carried out on December 22, 1216 by Pope Honorius III.
Dominic’s founding charism is “the salvation of souls through preaching”. Dominic is a preacher. He based his preaching on prayer and the contemplative experience, study as a search for truth, evangelical poverty and solidarity with the poor, and community life.
A star accompanied Dominic throughout his life, and with it he formed the great constellation of the Dominican Order with a lifestyle that imitates that of the apostles: people fully consecrated to the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom, with prayer and study as axis of their life, and with an eye toward evangelizing service.
In the second half of the 15th century, a new field was opened: THE MISSION TO THE FAR EAST. A group of Preachers responds with the desire to bring the LIGHT to all men, specifically to the non-believers in the Far East. Thus the Province of the Holy Rosary was born. Their first mission begins with the arrival of the Manila Galleon in the Philippines in 1587. From there the Dominican missionaries spread through Japan, China, Formosa, today Taiwan and Vietnam.
For three centuries they made their apostolic journeys under the sign of the cross, having as a lived reality, the acceptance of sacrifice and the readiness to face deprivation, insult, persecution and death itself.
After almost fifty years, another tiny light emerged: THE CONGREGATION OF RELIGIOUS MISSIONARIES OF SAINT DOMINIC, with a specifically MISSIONARY charism, fundamentally among non-believers. We are born from LIGHT! And for LIGHT!
In 1885 a simple story begins… a woman named Mrs. Valentina García Suelta, wanted to found a school in Villa de Ocaña, Toledo. She sought help from the Dominicans of the Holy Rosary Province residing in that town. In 1887 the journey of the Congregation begins amidst many difficulties and vicissitudes, always under the protection of the Holy Rosary Province. In the Provincial Chapter of 1890, the Sisters of Ocaña were incorporated into the Province of the Holy Rosary, becoming official and canonical in April 1891.
Incorporation carries with it that its charism will be like that of the Dominicans: MISSIONARIES FOR THE EAST. At this moment the missionary charism was born.
On April 20, 1892, the community of Ocaña moved to Madrid with their eyes focused on a distant field of missionary apostolate. On November 21, 1894 they moved to Calle de D. Ramón de la Cruz, 4, where the main task was to train those who will be sent to the missions in the East, without thinking at that time of expanding their presence in Spain. These Dominican sisters went to China to fulfill a purely evangelical and Christian mission, as well as a highly humanitarian one, such as helping or saving the victims of infanticide, a monstrous crime that shocked Europe and shocked Catholics around the world. The Santa Infancia was the purest and most solid fruit of China’s missions.
April 29, 1934, is a historic moment: the “little constellation” was canonically erected as a Congregation.