St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Image: Catholic Online
(Franciscan Media) Thomas Aquinas by universal consent is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and divine revelation–he is one of the great teachers of the medieval Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.
At the age of 5, he was sent to the ‘Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino’ in his parents hopes that he would choose that way of life and eventually become an Abbot. In 1239 he was sent to Naples to complete his studies, it was here he was first attracted to Aristotle’s philosophy.
By 1243, Thomas abandoned his parents plans for him and he joined the Dominicans, much to his mother’s dismay–on her order, Thomas was taken away by his brother and kept at home for over a year.
Once freed, Thomas went to Paris and then to Cologne, where he finished his studies with ‘Albert the Great’ — Thomas then holding two professorships in Paris, lived at the Court of Pope Urban IV, he directed the Dominican schools at Rome and Viterbo while combating adversaries.
Thomas’ greatest contribution to the Church was his writings, the unity, harmony, continuity of faith and reason, together with the revealed and natural human knowledge pervades his writings. One may expect that Thomas as a man of the Gospel, to be an ardent defender of the truth but he was broad and his logic was deep enough, to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator and see reason as a Divine Gift, to be highly cherished.
Saint Thomas Aquinas “Summa Theologixa” last and unfortunately incomplete work, is a brilliant synthesis of Christian doctrine about the humanity of God and is available online in English in 5 volumes.
Related: Saint Thomas Aquinas — Confessor, Doctor of the Church –EWTN
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