Saint Thomas Aquinas

Thomas was born around 1225 at the castle of Roccasecca near Aquino, into a wealthy noble family. ¹² When he took the Dominican habit his family opposed it flatly - the Dominicans were a new order of beggars, and this was not what noble sons did. He "was obliged to leave the convent and spend some time at home." ¹

He went back. The most placid-seeming of the great theologians began with a straightforward act of defiance against his own family.

At Paris he studied theology under Saint Albert the Great, and "a true and deep friendship developed between Albert and Thomas." ¹ Albert later brought him to Cologne. It is one of the great teacher-student relationships in the Church's history, and it ran both ways: Albert recognized what Thomas was long before anybody else did.

Thomas went on to hold the Dominican chair of theology at Paris, and was later sent to Naples, where he reorganized university studies for King Charles I. ¹

The central claim of his life's work is that "a natural harmony exists between Christian faith and reason" - that they are complementary rather than opposed. ¹ Reason is not a threat to be managed. It is a gift from the same God who gives revelation, and it cannot be used honestly and arrive at a contradiction of him.

For anyone who has been made to feel that taking their own mind seriously is a spiritual risk, that is the whole answer, and the Church has ranked it as doctrine.

His major systematic work, the Summa Theologiae, was begun in Rome between 1265 and 1268 and continued through his second period in Paris. ¹ It is still the structure most Catholic theology is taught against.

Benedict XVI records the exchange that says most about him. Asked what reward he wanted, Thomas answered the Crucifix: "Nothing but Yourself, Lord!" ¹ The greatest intellect the Church has produced wanted no book, no chair and no honor.

He died on 7 March 1274 at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova, while traveling to an ecumenical council. ¹² The Church calls him Doctor Angelicus, the Angelic Doctor, "perhaps because of his virtues and, in particular, the sublimity of his thought." ¹

Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint of students, of teachers and educators, of philosophers and theologians, and of Catholic colleges and universities. ² Anyone whose work is to understand something is in his territory.

The feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas is celebrated on January 28. ²

Thomas spent his life showing that faith and reason are in natural harmony because they come from the same source. ¹ Your questions are not disloyalty. Refusing to ask them would be closer to it.

His family locked him up over his vocation. ¹ He went back to the Dominicans, and nobody now remembers the objection.

Asked what reward he wanted, he answered the crucifix: nothing but yourself, Lord. ¹ Near the end he stopped writing altogether. The largest career in the history of theology finished with its author uninterested in it.

Albert the Great saw what Thomas was before anyone else did, and Benedict XVI notes that a deep friendship grew between them. ¹ If you are mentoring somebody, that is the model on offer. Friendship, not instruction.