HISTORY
In the letter of Damian Byrne to the Dominican Family on the subject of collaboration, he made a bold declaration by identifying the Order as fundamentally familial from the beginning: “The Dominican order was born a family.” Indeed, centuries of Dominican history and tradition indicate three distinct branches of First, Second, and Third Orders. However, though the idea of a family, which is made up of men and women, as well as of clerics and laity, can be construed as present from the beginning, the Tertiaries gained official status only years after the death of St. Dominic. This was through the Rule crafted by the sixth successor of the founder of the Order.