Expansion of the Dominican Order

Timeline

1. 1221Bologna · Emilia-RomagnaAfter the death of St. Dominic, the friars convened the first general chapter in Bologna, electing the first prior general, Jordan of Saxony, and adopting the Constitutions of the Dominican Order, establishing basic norms for communal life, study, and preaching.
2. 1221–1224Western Europe · EuropeThe chapter divided the order into several provinces and appointed provincial priors, establishing a hierarchical governance from prior general and provincial priors down to individual priors, providing an organizational framework for subsequent transnational expansion.
3. 1222–1230Paris · Île-de-FranceDominican friars entered university centers such as Paris and Oxford to establish study houses, combining preaching missions with academic training; by the late 1220s they had formed a network of priories across Europe's major Christian kingdoms, becoming a theological and preaching force on which the papacy relied.