Saint Thomas Aquinas

Feast Day: January 28

• Thomas Aquinas was born in Roccasecca, Italy, of the county of Aquino, between 1224-1225. The son of Italian nobles, Thomas was given by his parents to a Benedictine monastery as a child oblate in the hopes of one day becoming an influential abbot.

• Thomas as a young man, however, felt drawn to join the new mendicant order of the Dominicans: wandering friar-preachers who, along with the Franciscans, were ushering in a wave of reform and renewal in the Church.

• Thomas's parents, less than pleased by their son's lack of ambition, had him abducted on his way out of Italy and locked him up in the family castle. With the aim of breaking his resolve for his fledgling vocation, a prostitute was sent into Thomas's room. The effect, though, was quite the opposite: the young Thomas took a poker out of the fire and chased the would-be-temptress out of the room. As a reward for his zealous defense of his chastity, an angel was sent to gird Thomas with a cord around his waist as a sign of the Lord's protection of his purity for the rest of his life.

• As a Dominican, Thomas would go on to become a doctor of theology. Quiet and unassuming in the classroom, his fellow pupils dubbed him, rather uncharitably, as "the Dumb Ox" - an epithet their teacher, St. Albert the Great, would use instead to prophesy about his future greatness: "We call this young man a dumb ox, but his bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world." Indeed, Thomas soon became renowned for his capacious, keen, and enlightened intellect, which he dedicated entirely to the service of the Incarnate Word in the pursuit of wisdom and the explication of the mysteries of the Christian faith.

• Among the greatest fruits of his labors is the Summa Theologiae, a comprehensive summary of natural and sacred theology written for his novice Dominican brethren. Thomas also wrote prayers and hymns (including the O Salutaris, Tantum ergo, and Adoro te devote still used today) for the newly established Feast of Corpus Christi.

• Near the end of his life, in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Thomas heard the voice of the Lord Jesus himself coming from a crucifix on the altar, which said "Thomas, you have written well of me; what would you have as your reward?" The friar replied, "Non nisi te Domine" -- "nothing but you, Lord."

• Not too long after, Thomas set down his pen, never to write again and leaving his Summa unfinished. “I cannot write,” he explained to his confreres. “Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears as much straw.” He fell ill and died on the way to the Council of Lyon on March 7, 1274 at the age of 48.

• Canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323. St. Thomas is the patron saint of students and all universities. He was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Pius V and was called by Leo XIII “the prince and master of all Scholastic doctors”.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Pray for Us!