CrucisSt. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas was born around 1225 at the family castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily, and died on 7 March 1274 at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova while traveling to the Second Council of Lyon. Against his noble family's wishes — they reportedly confined him for a year to dissuade him — he joined the newly founded Dominican Order and studied under St. Albert the Great at Cologne and Paris. Quiet and heavyset, he was nicknamed the 'Dumb Ox' by fellow students, prompting Albert's famous reply that this ox's bellowing would one day be heard throughout the world.
Known as the Angelic Doctor, he is a Doctor of the Church and the foremost theologian of Catholic scholasticism, celebrated for uniting faith and reason and for drawing on Aristotle in service of Christian truth. His Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles remain foundational to Catholic thought, and he composed the liturgy and hymns for Corpus Christi. Near the end of his life a mystical experience led him to call his writings 'so much straw' compared to what he had seen. He was canonized in 1323 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567.
Selected quotes
“Charity is the form of all virtues; without it, every good work is like a body without a soul — present in appearance, but not truly alive.”
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
“A single act of pure charity is worth more before God than all the learning in the world without love, for it is charity alone that unites the soul directly to God.”