Munio of Zamora
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His Excellency, the Most Reverend Lord Brother Munio of Zamora, O.P. |
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|---|---|
| Bishop of Palencia | |
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| Diocese | Diocese of Palencia |
| Installed | 1294 |
| Term ended | 1300 |
| Other posts | Master General of the Dominican Order (1285-1291) |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 1294 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1237 Zamora (current day Castile-León, Spain) |
| Died | 19 February 1300 Rome, Italy |
| Buried | Basilica of Santa Sabina Rome, Italy |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Munio of Zamora, O.P., (1237 – 19 February 1300) was a Spanish Dominican friar who became the seventh Master General of the Dominican Order in 1285, and later a bishop.
No details of Munio's early life are recorded, but he is assumed to have been born in Zamora,. What is known of him comes from diverse sources, of varying value, and giving contradictory judgments. It would appear that he had a reputation of being an excellent administrator, when he was appointed as Prior Provincial of his native country in 1281. He was also known as being an ascetic man, practicing perpetual abstinence, though he also came to be known for his leniency towards those under his authority.
One notable difference he had from his predecessors was that he did not have the academic background which they did, never having studied at the great universities of Italy or France, and thus not having a Master's degree. Administration was his sole talent.
Munio, in his office as Prior Provincial, took part in the General Chapter of the Order, held in Bologna in 1285. When he was nominated as Master of the Order at that gathering, the French contingent of the Chapter objected to him based on his alleged lack of studies appropriate to the office. Nevertheless, the Chapter elected him.
The state of the Order as a whole at the time of Munio's election required a man of his gifts. The rapid growth of the Order had often been accomplished with minimal training of its new members. Discipline had become a major concern of Munio's predecessors, who issued frequent appeals to the friars and nuns of the Order to maintain the spirit of the Rule. Men were joining who claimed to have already the gift of preaching, and demanded to do so without any restrictions on the part of the Order.
In his first letter to the Order at large after his election, Munio issues a serious call to the friars and nuns to keep a spirit of poverty more strenuously, as well as an adherence to solitude and silence. He concludes:
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