Dominic de la Calzada

Saint Dominic de la Calzada
Statue of Dominic de la Calzada, Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
Born	1019 Viloria de Rioja, Spain
Died	12 May 1109 AD Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Spain
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Major shrine	Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Feast	May 12
Attributes	hen and rooster, monastic habit, prayer beads, shepherd's crook
Patronage	civil engineers

Saint 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.

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