One morning, while St. Thomas was praying before a crucifix, sacristan Domenico da Caserta overheard the saint ask our Lord whether he had written correctly on the mysteries of the Christian faith. Our Lord said, “You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What is your reward to be?” Thomas replied, “Nothing but Yourself, Lord!”
By Kimberly Bruce
“The Angelic Doctor” is the title given to one of the most gifted teachers and theologians in the whole history of the Catholic Church: St. Thomas Aquinas (feast day: Jan. 28), a patron saint of the Marian Fathers. His Summa Theologica (compendium of theology) stands supreme in its use of faith and reason to address pertinent questions regarding faith and the human person.
To his general audience on June 16, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said this Doctor of the Church’s ability to reason flowed from his deep faith and piety, enabling him to compose prayers such as: “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.”
Noble beginnings
Saint Thomas was born c. 1225 to a noble family in Aquina, Italy. His parents hoped that, by giving the young boy at the age of 5 to the Benedictine abbey in Monte Cassino, he would one day become its abbot.
Before his birth, however, St. Thomas’ mother received a prophetic message from a holy hermit, who said, “He will enter the Order of Friars Preachers, and so great will be his learning and sanctity that in his day no one will be found to equal him.”
Between 1240-1243, St. Thomas entered the newly-founded Dominican Order in Naples. His family was so upset that he would now be amongst the poor friars that they captured him, keeping him prisoner for 1-2 years, hoping to destroy his vocation.
His brothers even tried sending a woman one night to his bedroom to seduce him. After driving the woman out of his room with a hot poker and scoring a cross on the door behind her, St. Thomas knelt in prayer begging for integrity of mind and body. That evening, two angels appeared before him and girded him with a white girdle, saying, “We gird thee with the girdle of perpetual virginity.”
Free to be a Dominican
Upon his release from his family’s castle, St. Thomas returned to the Dominicans and was sent to study in France, where he met and befriended St. Albert the Great, his professor. Recognizing greatness in his star pupil, St. Albert heard Thomas’ classmates calling him “the dumb ox” partly because of his silence and partly because of his size, and said of Thomas, “His bellowing [in doctrine] will one day resound throughout the world.”
In 1250, St. Thomas was ordained to the priesthood and famously began preaching throughout Italy, France, and Germany.
In 1257, both he and St. Bonaventure received their doctorates in theology together at the University of Paris. Having studied Peter Lombard’s “Sentences” (a compendium of theology), St. Thomas’ written commentaries on them became the basis for his own Summa.
Faith and reason
Saint Thomas demonstrated that faith and science were not in conflict with one another. In his address, Pope Benedict XVI quoted St. Thomas, who said:
We must bear in mind that there are two kinds of sciences. There are some which proceed from a principle known by the natural light of the intelligence, such as arithmetic and geometry and the like. There are some which proceed from principles known by the light of a higher science: thus the science of perspective proceeds from principles established by geometry, and music from principles established by arithmetic. So it is that sacred doctrine is a science, because it proceeds from principles established by the light of a higher science, namely, the science of God and the blessed (ia, q. 1, a.2).
Saint Thomas wrote many other great works and sacred hymns. Along with St. Albert and Peter of Tarentasia (the future Pope Innocent V), St. Thomas produced a system of studies for the Dominicans, still preserved today.
A mystic
A prayerful, pious soul, St. Thomas was observed on many occasions to be in a state of ecstasy and even levitation during prayer.
One morning, while St. Thomas was praying before a crucifix, sacristan Domenico da Caserta overheard the saint ask our Lord whether he had written correctly on the mysteries of the Christian faith. Our Lord said, “You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What is your reward to be?”
Thomas replied, “Nothing but Yourself, Lord!”
Saint Thomas died on March 7, 1274, enroute to the Second Council of Lyon at the behest of Pope Gregory X. He was declared a saint in 1323 by Pope John XXII, a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Pius V in 1567, and designated patron saint of all Catholic schools by Pope Leo XIII in 1880.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, pray for us!
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