Saint Dominic de la Calzada

Dominic de la Calzada (or Dominic of the Causeway) (Spanish: Santo Domingo de la Calzada) (1019 – 12 May 1109) was a saint from a cottage in Burgos very close to La Rioja. Born Domingo García in Viloria de Rioja, he was the son of a peasant named Ximeno García. His mother was named Orodulce. A shepherd, he tried to join the Benedictine order first at Valvanera and then at San Millán de la Cogolla, but was turned away. He then became a hermit in the forests near Ayuela, near the present-day town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, until 1039. In 1039, he began working with Gregory IV of Ostia (Gregorio), bishop of Ostia, who had been sent to Calahorra as a papal envoy to combat a plague of locusts that afflicted Navarre and La Rioja. Gregory ordained Dominic a priest. Together they built a wooden bridge over the Oja River to help pilgrims on the Way of St. James. Gregory died in 1044, and Dominic returned to Ayuela, where he began developing the area. He cleared trees, cultivated the earth, and began to build a paved causeway (in Spanish, calzada), which served as an alternate route to the traditional Roman causeway between Logroño and Burgos. Dominic's causeway became the principal route between Nájera and Redecilla del Camino. Dominic was joined in this work by Juan de Ortega. To better the conditions of the pilgrims that began to use his new causeway, he replaced the wooden bridge that he had built with Gregory with one made of stone, and constructed on the site of an old fort, a building that served as a hospice for travelers. Today, it is the Casa del Santo, which is a used as a hostel by modern-day pilgrims. The town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada began as a few houses built around the hermitage of the saint in his lifetime. At this death in 1109, the village had grown in population. Alfonso VI of Castile annexed La Rioja in 1076 and seeing that Dominic's efforts contributed to the Castilianization of the region, decided to support him and his projects.