John and an older brother Dominic owned a bunch of different places.
In the i 1 th century this new form of devotion was extolled by some of the most ardent reformers in the monastic houses of the west, such as Abbot Popon of Stavelot, St Dominic Loricatus (so called from his practice of wearing next his skin an iron lorica, or cuirass of thongs), and especially Cardinal Pietro Damiani.
The majority of these reformers exemplified their preaching in their own persons, and St Dominic gained great renown by inflicting upon himself 300,000 strokes in six days.
The bishop induced his canons to follow the Rule of St Augustine and thus make themselves Augustinian Canons; and so Dominic became a canon regular and soon the prior or provost of the cathedral community.
The years from 1195 to 1203 have been filled up with fabulous stories of missions to the Moors; but Dominic stayed at Osma, preaching much in the cathedral, until 1203, when he accompanied the bishop on an embassy in behalf of the king of Castile to "The Marches."