Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Also known as

• Thomas Aquino
• Thomas of Aquino
• Angel of the Schools
• Angelic Doctor
• Doctor Angelicus
• Doctor Communis
• Great Synthesizer
• The Dumb Ox
• The Universal Teacher
• Universal Doctor

Memorial

• 28 January
• 7 March (Fossanuova monastery near Terracina, Italy)
• 13 November as patron of Catholic schools (on the Dominican calendar from 1924 to 1962)

Profile

Son of the Count of Aquino, born in the family castle in Lombardy near Naples, Italy. Educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, and at the University of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244. His family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to keep him out of sight, and deprogram him, but they failed to sway him, and he rejoined his order in 1245.
He studied in Paris, France from 1245 to 1248 under Saint Albert the Great, then accompanied Albertus to Cologne, Germany. Ordained in 1250, then returned to Paris to teach. Taught theology at University of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle and Lombard’s Sentences, and some bible-related works, usually by dictating to secretaries. He won his doctorate, and taught in several Italian cities. Recalled by king and university to Paris in 1269, then recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on the Summa Theologica.
On 6 December 1273 he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons, overweight and with his health broken by overwork.
His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church ever since. They systematized her great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship methods with the truth of Christianity. Pope Leo VIII commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

Born

• c.1225 at Roccasecca, Aquino, Naples, Italy

Died

• 7 March 1274 at Fossanuova monastery near Terracina, Italy of apparent natural causes
• relics interred at Saint-Servin, Toulouse, France
• relics translated to the Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse on 22 October 1974

Canonized

• 18 July 1323 by Pope John XXII

Patronage

• academics
• against storms
• against lightning
• apologists
• booksellers
• Catholic academies
• Catholic schools (proclaimed on 4 August 1880 by Pope Leo XIII)
• Catholic universities
• chastity
• colleges
• learning
• pencil makers
• philosophers
• publishers
• scholars
• schools
• students
• theologians
• universities
• University of Vigo
• Aquino, Italy
• Aquino-Pontecorvo, Italy, diocese of
• Belcastro, Italy
• Falerna, Italy
• Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, Italy, diocese of

Representation

• chalice
• dove, usually speaking into his ear, sometimes as he writes
• monstrance
• ox
• star
• sun
• teacher with pagan philosophers at his feet
• teaching
• person trampled under foot

Readings

Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. – Saint Thomas Aquinas

Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues. – Saint Thomas Aquinas

We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; and God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides. – Saint Thomas Aquinas

If you seek the example of love: “Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends.” Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake. If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because “when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth.” If you seek an example of obedience, follow him who became obedient to the Father even unto death. “For just as by the disobedience of one man,” namely, Adam, “many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many were made righteous.” If you seek an example of despising earthly things, follow him who is “the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Upon the cross he was stripped, mocked, spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, and given only vinegar and gall to drink. Do not be attached, therefore, to clothing and riches, because “they divided my garments among themselves.” Nor to honors, for he experienced harsh words and scourgings. Nor to greatness of rank, for “weaving a crown of thorns they placed it on my head.” Nor to anything delightful, for “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” – from the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas

The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods. – Saint Thomas Aquinas

Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace. – Saint Thomas Aquinas

Most loving Lord, grant me a steadfast heart which no unworthy desire may drag downards; an unconquered hear which no hardship may wear out; an upright heart which no worthless purpose may ensnare. Impart to me also, O God, the understanding to know you, the diligence to seek you, a way of life to please you, and a faithfulness that may embrace you, through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen. – Saint Thomas Aquinas, from Something Of A Saint

Hence we must say that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act. But he does not need a new light added to his natural light, in order to know the truth in all things, but only in some that surpasses his natural knowledge. – Saint Thomas Aquinas