Blessed Jordan and Blessed Diana

Blessed Jordan of Saxony was at the University of Paris when the preaching of Bl. Reginald inspired him to enter the newly-founded Order of Preachers—but not until he had convinced his friend Henry to join with him. They entered on Ash Wednesday, just as the chant, “Let us change our garments…” was being sung by the choir. “We suited our actions to the words!” Jordan remembers. He was both devout and competent: soon after entering the Order, he was appointed by St. Dominic as the first prior provincial (regional superior) of the newly-erected province of Lombardy

Meanwhile, in the university town of Bologna, the preaching of Bl. Reginald and then of St. Dominic himself had inspired a young noble woman, Diana d’Andalo, to give her life to God in union with the work of the Friars Preachers. She made her profession in St. Dominic’s hands, before there was even a house to receive her as a Dominican nun. She was willing to wait . . . but when the time dragged on, she ran away to a monastery of Benedictines, only to be torn away by brute force by her family who were violently opposed to a religious vocation. (They broke one of her ribs in the process!)

As Diana was recovering her health back at home, her family gradually softened to the idea of her vocation. When Bl. Jordan was elected Master of the Order upon the death of St. Dominic in 1221, he knew that the time had come to found a monastery of Dominican nuns there in Bologna. Soon Bl. Diana was established with some friends and companions, and Bl. Jordan arranged to have some of the Dominican nuns from the monastery of San Sisto in Rome come join them, to teach them how to live the Dominican life as they themselves had been taught by St. Dominic.

Here Bl. Jordan showed again his heart for friendship. Over the next 14 years until his death, in the course of his travels as Master of the Order, Bl. Jordan wrote 50 letters to Bl. Diana and her community. “Unite yourself to God in the assiduous intimacy of prayer; may the beloved Jesus be your bridegroom, and the face of your Beloved, chosen out of thousands, be your delight,” Bl. Jordan wrote. Or again: “Though I do not at the present time come in the flesh to visit you, still I am with you in spirit; for wheresoever I go I yet remain with you, and though in the flesh you remain behind, in the spirit I carry you with me.” These letters are a precious witness to the mutual spiritual support of the Dominican friars and cloistered Dominican nuns.

You can read Bl. Jordan’s letters in To Heaven with Diana! by Fr. Gerald Vann, O.P.