Joan of Aza

Who was Joan of Aza?

Juana de Aza is the name gradually developed in hagiographical tradition for the mother of Saint Dominic. In the final form of this tradition she is said to have been born in 1135 in Haza and to have died at Caleruega on 2 August 1205. Juana de Aza was beatified in 1828.

In the earliest biography of Dominic, by Jordan of Saxony, Dominic's parents are not named, but the story is told that before his birth his mother dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth and set the world aflame. Jordan adds that Dominic was brought up by his parents and a maternal uncle who was an "archpriest". A later source, still of the 13th century, gives the names of Dominic's mother and father as Juana and Felix. Nearly a century after Dominic's birth, a local author asserts that Dominic's father was vir venerabilis et dives in populo suo; later hagiographers, elaborating on this, gradually developed identities for his father, said to be a member of the local noble family Guzmán and for his mother, who was eventually attached to the neighbouring noble family Aza.

According to Dominican tradition, his mother later saw the moon on his forehead, yet at his Baptism, his godmother perceived it as a star. The boy was christened probably after Saint Dominic of Silas whose nearby shrine was a favorite of his mother.