St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Feast Day - January 28th
Thomas is believed to have been born in the old county of the Kingdom of Sicily, which is now known as the Lazio region of Italy in 1225 to well-off parents. As a young adult Thomas went first to Naples, then to Rome and then to the University of Paris, where he is believed to have met Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus, the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James. In 1248, Thomas chose to follow Magnus to the new studium generale at Cologne rather than accepting Pope Innocent IV's offer to appoint him abbot of Monte Cassino as a Dominican. In 1252, Thomas returned to Paris to continue his advanced studies, to teach and to write. In 1265, Thomas was summoned to Rome to serve as the papal theologian and later to teach at the studium conventuale, which was the first school to teach the full range of philosophical subjects of both moral and natural natures.
While teaching, Thomas wrote his most famous work, Summa Theologiae, which he believed was particularly useful to beginning students "because a doctor of Catholic truth ought not only to teach the proficient, but to him pertains also to instruct beginners."
Thomas' remains were placed in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse on January 28, 1369. It is not known who beatified Thomas, but on July 18, 1323, Pope John XXII canonized him. His original feast day was March 7, the day of his death, but because the date often falls within Lent, in 1969, a revision of the Roman Calendar changed his feast day to January 28, the date his relics were moved to Toulouse. Pope Pius V declared Saint Thomas a doctor of the church, saying Thomas was "the most brilliant light of the Church." Saint Thomas' remains were moved to the Basilique de Sant-Sernin, Toulouse between 1789 and 1974. They were then returned to the Church of the Jacobins.
DonorMr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Rom, in honor of our parents. |
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