St. Dominic - Feast: August 8th

Born: 1170 -- Died: 1221
St. Dominic was born in Calaruega, Spain. He founded the

"Order of Friar Preachers" (aka Dominicans), propagated the praying of the Rosary, and saved the Church from the Albingensian Heresy.*

Tradition in both the Franciscan and the Dominican orders has it that St. Dominic met and became good friends withSt. Fancis of Assisi.

He is the Patron Saint of Astronomers.

*Definition fromNew Advent. Please note that PARAPHRASED!

The dualism of the Albigenses was the basis of their moral teaching. Man, they taught, is a living contradiction. Hence, the liberation of the soul from its captivity in
the body is the true end of our being. To attain this, suicide was commendable;
The fascination (of Albingensian Heresy was) exercised by the
readily-grasped dualistic principle; . . . . (and was also supported by) an overwhelming majority of the nobility, and the intimate local blending of national aspirations and religious sentiment.

The Doctrine in a bit more detail:
1) The Albigenses asserted the co-existence of two mutually opposed
principles, one good, the other evil. (thus, the dualistic principle)

2) They believed that the"good" principle was the creator of the spiritual.

3) The "evil" principle was the creator of the material world.
They gave the bad principle credit for all evil;

• natural phenomena, either ordinary like the growth of plants, or
  extraordinary as earthquakes,
• likewise moral disorders (war), was attributed to him.
• He created the human body and is the author of sin, which springs from
  matter and not from the spirit.
• The improsonment of souls in material bodies (They believd the evil
  deceived souls into leaving the kingdom of light).
• The Old Testament
  must be either partly or entirely ascribed to him.

They believd that this earth is a place of punishment, the only hell that exists for the
human soul.

They gave the good principle credit for:

• The New
  Testament because it is the revelation of the beneficent God.
• The creation of human souls.

They believd that Jesus was a mere creature. They thought that The
Redeemer could not take on a genuine human body, because he would thereby have
come under the control of the evil principle. His body was, therefore, of
celestial essence, and with it He penetrated the ear of Mary. It was only
apparently that He was born from her and only apparently that He suffered. They
taught that his redemption was not operative, but solely instructive. To
enjoy its benefits, one must become a member of the Church of Christ (the
Albigenses). Here below, it is not the Catholic sacraments but the
peculiar ceremony of the Albigenses known as the consolamentum, or "consolation," that purifies the soul from all sin and ensures its immediate return to heaven. The resurrection of the body will not take place, since by its nature all flesh is evil.

sources:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm

carr.org