The chronogram is located on the sandstone pedestal. The Roman numerals of chronogram are larger than the other letters and are not color-coded from the rest of the text.
The statue was recently repaired and the inscription is clearly legible. The current inscription differs from the original in some letters. It causes a different chronogram value. The historical documentation (
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The chronogram:
eratres praeDICatores ConVentVs brVnensIs Me ereXere // 1727
St. Dominic often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán (8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), was a Castilian priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers.
Dominic was educated in the schools of Palencia (they became a university soon afterward) where he devoted six years to the arts and four to theology. In 1215, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in a house given by Peter Seila, a rich resident of Toulouse. Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization to address the spiritual needs of the growing cities of the era, one that would combine dedication and systematic education, with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. He subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and penance; and meanwhile Bishop Foulques gave them written authority to preach throughout the territory of Toulouse.
Also in 1215, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic and Foulques went to Rome to secure the approval of the Pope, Innocent III. Dominic returned to Rome a year later, and was finally granted written authority in December 1216 and January 1217 by the new pope, Honorius III for an order to be named "The Order of Preachers" ("Ordo Praedicatorum", or "O.P.," popularly known as the Dominicans or Order of Preachers).
The feast of Saint Dominic is celebrated with great pomp and devotion in Malta, in the old city of Birgu and the capital city Valletta. The Dominican order has very strong links with Malta and Pope Pius V, a Dominican friar himself, aided the Knights of St. John to build the city of Valletta.
The general attributes of sculpture of St. Dominic: Priestly dress, the Cross, a spear, a cane
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