Dominicans value the importance of sacred studies for the sake of preaching. The Prologue to the 1220 Constitution asserts, “the labor of study is…to make us capable of being useful to the soul of our neighbor.” It is no surprise that St. Dominic sent his brethren to the intellectual powerhouses of Europe at the time: the Universities of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, to name a few, and he himself attended classes of Master Alexander Stavensby of Toulouse “to assure continuity in study and theological reflection” (Guy Bedouelle, Saint Dominic: the Grace of the Word, 165). He even “studied the Epistles of Saint Paul assiduously, until he knew them almost entirely by heart” and exhorted his brethren to cultivate a love of learning and love of books, for “the Friar Preacher is not a good religious unless he is a man of study” (Ibid., 156-166).

It is not by chance that the Constitution of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Immaculate Province decrees that a library must exist in each house. The library, in the Dominican tradition, is metaphorically a fortified “citadel of truth” in which “a supply of water and grain, of arms” is crucially essential. “The water signified Wisdom, the grain, the Word of God found in Scriptures, and the armory, the library” (Ibid., 165). At the Provincial House (or St. Catherine Convent), the former high ceiling chapel, which was the worship space for 60 sisters has been transformed into a new modest library with a lovely mezzanine that can stack the 10,000 plus volume collection and provide a space for theological research and reflection.