The Order of Saint Gonzalo

Right now there's nothing in Andalusada called the Order of St. Dominic, and even if there are "Dominicans" they have nothing to do with the Dominicans IRL. That's because that niche evolved differently, and the organization filling it is the Order of Saint Gonzalo, commonly the Gonzalans.

Dominican Gonzalan spirituality 101

Because of Rule of Canny, Gonzalan spirituality looks understandably like the Dominican spirituality it replaces. (At one point, I described Franciscan and Dominican spiritualities as being "Christocentric" vs. "Logocentric"; in Andalusada, the distinction is better incarnational vs. evangelical.) The first and most glaring distinction is that Gonzalo did something Domingo didn't: by adopting (and adapting) the Rule of Saint Stephen from Stephanines, he circumvented a papal ban on establishing new rules.

"The one rule of our salvation and of all others'," the Rule begins, "is the Gospel of Christ..." - and it goes from there, in a fairly stark fashion. More specifically, the Rule is followed by a distinctly Augustinian, southern, and... well, let's be honest, openly schismatic reading of it, which lead to hundreds of Stephanines defecting to Gonzalo's side when it became known to them. That southern-Augustinian-dissenting addendum moderates the Muretin starkness, but in doing so also emphasizes the features of it that are most recognizably Dominican.

(This means that, from the very start, a case could be made that Saint Gonzalo wasn't following his own Rule. It also means that, unlike the Dominicans IRL, it's both meaningful and possible for there to be Capuchin-style strict-observance orders. Some of those strict-observance sausage parties were probably key figures in the rise of the Sodality.)

Organization of the Gonzalans

In the beginning, the Gonzalan movement was (as is typical) formed into three orders:

• The first Order, the only ones called Gonzalans properly, composed of its friars;
• The "Second Order," more properly called the Order of St. Matilda;
• The Third Order, comprised of laity under vows.

More recently, though, there are some other offshoots of this:

• The aforementioned "Strict Observers," a Capuchin-style purist movement.
• And some nun orders that are affiliated but independent, because you can only be so loyal to the Rule when it forbids nuns in the first place.

Within a few decades of St. Gonzalo's death, the Order compiled a liturgy of its own, which continues in use to the present day. For more on that, read here.

The Gonzalan Order in the world

So here's what little bits I know:

• The Gonzalans arise in the first half of the 13th century, alongside the other mendicant orders. They take off wildly, especially in Iberia (where they quickly establish a Mozarabic revival of sorts, and also secure themselves as an integral part of the order; not for nothing does the Gonzalan Rite show an Isidoran influence.) From the beginning, they're involved in both inquisitions and missions.
• And wherever they go, the Stephanines follow them.
• John George Günther, rather infamously, comes from the Gonzalan ranks, and causes an incredible amount of trouble to the order. It becomes somewhat more hardline and orthodox after that.
• Oddly enough, the Gonzalans make a comeback as Pomerania gets reduced; especially after the 1790s confederation, when Catholicism becomes more heavy-handed in partitioned Pomerania, a number of Güntherites consign their children to the Gonzalans. (It pays off. A number of first-generation Gonzalans convert back to Güntheritism and become important supporters of the 1832 insurrection.)

Blah blah blah...

• Much more than is true IRL, the Gonzalans are going to be involved in missionary efforts. This is especially true as Seville and Portugal push west; where the Mozarabs go, the Gonzalans follow, and the Mozarabs are going to be quite self-conscious about the Moorish boot. If the Gonzalans spend several centuries as the undisputed Catholic authorities of the Maghrib, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
• In Spain, at least, the Gonzalans may oddly find themselves as neutral arbiters. Because they answer first to the provincial master, and wind up on all sides of all conflicts, that autonomy may prove somewhat useful.

This is a work in progress. It will be expanded on, cleaned up, etc. in the very near future.