Dominic de la Calzada

Who was Dominic de la Calzada?

Saint Dominic de la Calzada 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.

He repeatedly tried to join the Benedictine order at Valvanera and 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, 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. They built together 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, 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.