A Castilian canon, he crossed Languedoc with his bishop and saw that preaching on horseback, with an escort and fine clothes, convinced no one. He set out again on foot, without money, to spend whole days in argument with those then called heretics. He founded an order of poor itinerant preachers, at once sent his first brothers to study in Paris and Bologna, and died at fifty-one in a borrowed bed, with nothing to leave.
In their own words
Lord, what will become of sinners?
Words of his night prayer, reported by the witnesses at his canonization inquiry, Bologna, 1233, translated from the Latin by the Manna team
Have charity, keep humility, possess voluntary poverty.
Jordan of Saxony, Libellus on the beginnings of the Order of Preachers, his last words to his brothers, translated from the Latin by the Manna team
I shall be more use to you after my death than during my life.
Words reported by the witnesses at his canonization inquiry, Bologna, 1233, translated from the Latin by the Manna team