St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church,
patron of all universities and of students. He was born
in Roccasecca, Aquino, Naples, Italy toward the end of
the year 1226. He was the son of Landulph, Count of
Aquino, who, when St. Thomas was five years old,
placed him under the care of the Benedictines of Monte
Casino. He surpassed all his fellow pupils in learning as
well as in the practice of virtue.
When he became of age to choose his state of life, St.
Thomas renounced the things of this world and resolved
to enter the Order of St. Dominic in spite of the
opposition of his family. In 1243, at the age of
seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples. As a
reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of
perfect chastity, which has merited for him the title of the
"Angelic Doctor".
After making his profession at Naples, he studied at
Cologne under the celebrated St. Albert the Great. Here
he was nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent
ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student.
At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in
the same city. At the same time, he also began to
publish his first works. After four years he was sent to
Paris. The saint was then a priest. At the age of thirty-
one, he received his doctorate.
At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King,
St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261,
Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to
teach, but he positively declined to accept any
ecclesiastical dignity. St. Thomas not only wrote (his
writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by
brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he
preached often and with greatest fruit. Clement offered
him the archbishopric of Naples which he also refused.
He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa
Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second
Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell
sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa
Nuova in 1274.
St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential
theologians of all time. He was canonized in 1323 and
declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V. His
relics are kept at Saint-Servin, Toulouse, France
.