Editing Dominican Order (section)

===Missions abroad===
The Pax Mongolica of the 13th and 14th centuries that united vast parts of the European-Asian continents enabled Western missionaries to travel east. "Dominican friars were preaching the Gospel on the Volga Steppes by 1225 (the year following the establishment of the Kipchak Khanate by Batu), and in 1240 Pope Gregory IX despatched others to Persia and Armenia."{{sfn|Marsh-Edwards|1937|p=599}} The most famous Dominican was [[Jordan Catala|Jordanus de Severac]] who was sent first to Persia then in 1321, together with a companion (Nicolas of Pistoia) to India. Jordanus' work and observations are recorded in two letters he wrote to the friars of Armenia, and a book, {{lang|la|Mirabilia}}, translated as ''Wonders of the East''.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

Another Dominican, [[Riccoldo da Monte di Croce|Ricold of Monte Croce]], worked in Syria and Persia. His travels took him from Acre to Tabriz, and on to Baghdad. There "he was welcomed by the Dominican fathers already there, and with them entered into a disputation with the Nestorians."{{sfn|Marsh-Edwards|1937|p=603}} Although a number of Dominicans and Franciscans persevered against the growing faith of Islam throughout the region, all Christian missionaries were soon expelled with [[Timur]]'s death in 1405.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

By the 1850s, the Dominicans had half a million followers in the Philippines and well-established missions in the Chinese province of [[Fujian]] and [[Tonkin]], Vietnam, performing thousands of baptisms each year.{{sfn|Bowring|1859|pp=211, 213}}  The Dominicans presence in the Philippines has become one of the leading proponents of education with the establishment of [[Colegio de San Juan de Letran]].<ref name="Cornell Law">{{cite web |title=Philippine Sugar Estates Development Co., Limited, v. Government of the Philippine Islands. |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/247/385 |website=LII / Legal Information Institute |access-date=14 July 2021 |language=en |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714083013/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/247/385 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Better source|date=April 2025}}