Why the feast of St. Dominic is not actually the Dominicans’ biggest feast day

Aug. 8 marks the feast day of St. Dominic, the 13th-century priest known for founding the Order of Preachers, commonly called the Dominicans, and for spreading devotion to the rosary.

Surprisingly, though, the Dominicans don’t usually do much to celebrate the saint’s Aug. 8 feast day.

While the August feast “is for us certainly always a feast,” Dominican Father Angelo Giuseppe Urru told EWTN News in 2018, it’s not the primary one.

Instead, the order celebrates “more solemnly” May 24, which is the solemnity of the Translation of St. Dominic.

This unusual feast day commemorates the day St. Dominic’s remains were moved, or “translated,” from their original burial spot behind an altar of the church of San Nicolo della Vigne in Bologna, Italy, to a more prominent place in the church in 1233.

For many Dominican provinces, this day is the big celebration, Urru said.

The move of St. Dominic’s body was carried out at the request of Pope Gregory IX about one year before the saint’s canonization on July 13, 1234, only 13 years after his death.

As recorded in a letter by Blessed Jordan of Saxony, one of the first leaders of the Dominicans, the brothers were very anxious before…