Born in Castile (Spain) about 1170, St. Dominic was the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans), one of the four great mendicant religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church. He formed the order in Toulouse (France) in 1215, and it received papal approval in 1216. St. Dominic died in 1221 and was canonized (declared a saint) in 1234.