The Diocese of Grand Rapids celebrated the feast day of St. Dominic on Monday, extending special greetings to the Dominican Sisters in the area.

“On today's feast of St. Dominic, join us in wishing a happy feast day to the Dominican Sisters Grand Rapids and Dominican Associates, the Dominican priests serving in our diocese as well as the parish community of St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Dominic,” the diocese posted on Facebook.

St. Dominic was born in Spain in the 12th century to parents in the nobility. When he was in his 20s, he joined a religious community, Britannica says. He and the Bishop of Oslo were traveling abroad when Dominic learned that Albigensian heretics who were teaching that anything concerning the body - including eating, drinking and procreating - was evil were threatening the Church in France, Dominic and the bishop were determined to convert the heretics. To do that, they preached their message while living in poverty and traveling barefoot.

That venture marked the beginning of Dominic's "evangelical preaching,” Britannica adds. Dominic converted about 16 heretics, who began to follow him. The group worked to establish a formal religious order devoted to preaching, and Pope Honorius III officially recognized the Dominican Order in 1216.

Catholics celebrate the feast day of St. Dominic every Aug. 8, Franciscan Media says. He is the patron saint of astronomers and of the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Order today includes an array of people — friars, nuns, sisters and lay people — who carry on St. Dominic's mission of teaching, preaching, studying, and praying. Dominican friars are often engaged in campus ministry efforts at universities. They also lead retreats, missions and workshops, serve as chaplains in hospitals and convents, and serve as missionaries.