Domingo Abella was born in Nueva Caceres (now Naga City) to a rich family. His father, Don Manuel Abella was a rich landowner and businessman. Domingo excelled both in mental and physical activities, he was versatile in various sports and was a surveyor by profession.

When the Katipunan raised the call for revolution, he attended secret meetings in Nueva Caceres to discuss ways and means of supporting the movement.

When his activites became known to the authorities, he was arrested on the charges of rebellion and the plan to assassinate the Spaniards in Nueva Caceres. He and other Bicolanos were boarded in the Isarog, brought to Manila in chains, taken to Fort Santiago, locked up, tortured, tried in a military commission, was found guilty and sentenced to death. The other Bicolanos accused were Father Inocencio Herrera, a parish priest of Naga Cathedral; Father Gabriel Prieto, parish priest of Malinao, Albay; Don Manuel Abella, his father; Camilo Jacob, Tomas Prieto, a pharmacist; Macario Valentin, chief of the night guards in Naga; Carnilo Mercado, Mariano Melgarejo, an employee of the Department of Public Works and Mariano Ordenanza.

The priests were held in the convent of San Agustin while others were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment (Mariano Ordenanza), others were exiled to Fernando Po, a Spanish penal colony west of Africa (Ramon Abella and Ramon Arana) while the others were sentenced to death by a firing squad. On January 4, 1897, together with his father and other accused, the Bikol martyrs faced the firing squad in Bagumbayan.