The collect for today, the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), Priest, Friar, Poet, Doctor of the Church (source):
Everlasting God,
who didst enrich thy Church with the learning and holiness
of thy servant Thomas Aquinas:
grant to all who seek thee
a humble mind and a pure heart
that they may know thy Son Jesus Christ
to be the way, the truth and the life;
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Lesson: Wisdom 7:7-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 13:47-52
Born into a noble family near Aquino, between Rome and Naples, St. Thomas was educated at the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino until age thirteen, and then at the University of Naples. When he decided to join the Dominican Order, his family were dismayed because the Dominicans were mendicants and regarded as socially inferior to the Benedictines. Thomas’s brothers kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year in the family’s castle, but he finally escaped and became a Dominican friar in 1244.
The rest of Thomas’s life was spent studying, teaching, preaching, and writing. Initially, he studied philosophy and theology with Albert the Great at Paris and Cologne. Albert was said to prophesy that, although Thomas was called the dumb ox (probably referring to his physical size), “his lowing would soon be heard all over the world”.
His two greatest works are Summa Contra Gentiles, begun c. 1259 and completed in 1264, and Summa Theologica, begun c. 1266 but uncompleted at his death.
The former work is a Christian apologetic for use by missionaries and directed toward Muslims, Jews, and others who did not accept orthodox Christian belief. Using Aristotle, who was popular among Muslim, Jewish, and pagan scholars, Aquinas attempted to give rational arguments in favour of Christianity.
The Summa Theologica is a treatise on Christian orthodoxy directed toward Christians, particularly students of theology. Running to five large volumes, it contains a comprehensive and systematic statement of Thomas’s mature thought on almost all aspects of Christian life and doctrine. He took a logical and intellectual approach to questions about the faith: For each question discussed, objections and replies are presented, concluding with a summary of his view and answers to the objections raised.
Thomas left the Summa unfinished at his death. During a mass in December 1273, he experienced a revelation from God that persuaded him to stop writing. “All I have written,” he said, “seems to me like straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” He died just over a year later.
Thomas is recognised as the greatest philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages, and his influence on the Christian Church has been enormous. The modern revival of Thomas’s thought follows Leo XIII’s 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris praising and endorsing “Thomism”. Aspects of Thomas’s thought—-in, for example, apologetics–have been influential among Protestant theologians as well.
Thomas was canonised in 1323. His remains are placed in the Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France.
The painting posted below, Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas by Francisco de Zurbaran, shows the saint ascending into heaven in front of his students, an open volume in his hand, lecturing as he ascends.
Artwork: Francisco de Zurbaran, Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1631. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Seville.