Saint of the day January 28, 2025

St. Thomas Aquinas

DAILY SAINT

Nirmala Josephine

1/27/20252 min read

St. Thomas Aquinas was a Priest and is a Doctor of the Church. He was born in 1225 in Italy. He came from one of the noblest families of the Kingdom of Naples with the title “Counts of Aquino”. He was the son of Landulph, Count of Aquino, who when St. Thomas was five years old, was placed under the care of the Benedictines of Monte Casino.

He made great progress, surpassing all his fellow pupils in learning as well as in the practice of virtue, surprising his teachers. When he became old enough, he renounced the world and entered the Order of St. Dominic. He found opposition from his family. He joined the Dominicans of Naples when he was seventeen. His family fought him for two years, but he persevered in his vocation to become a Priest. As a reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of perfect chastity, which has merited him the title of “Angelic Doctor”.

After making his profession in Naples, he studied at Cologne under St. Albert the Great. He was nicknamed the “dumb ox” because of his silent ways and huge size but was an extremely intelligent student. He was appointed to teach in Naples. It was also at this time that he started to publish his first works.

He was sent to Paris as a Priest, four years later, and at the age of thirty-one he received his doctorate. While in Paris he became good friends with King St. Louis and often dined with him. Pope Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach but he positively declined to accept any Ecclesiastical dignity. He not only wrote and published his works but also preached, which produced some of his greatest fruits. He was even offered the position of Archbishop of Naples, but he refused.

The great works of his learning, the “Summa Theologica” was unfinished. Pope Gregory X ordered him to the Second Council of Lyons, and on his way, he fell sick. He died at the Cistercian Monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274. He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V.

His influence on Western thought has been great, and much of modern philosophy was conceived in development or refutation of his ideas, particularly in areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. St. Thomas is held in the Church to be the model teacher of those studying for the Priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both Natural Reason and Speculative Theology. The study of his works is a core of the required program of study for those seeking Ordination as Priests and Deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and students of Sacred Disciplines.

Reflection

Saint Thomas Aquinas was a highly influential figure in the Roman Catholic Church and is considered one of the Church’s most successful teachers and theologians. His teachings have impacted generations of students, scholars, theologians, and philosophers, who have drawn upon his ideas and principles to shape their own perspectives and arguments.
Aquinas’s philosophy, which combines ideas from Aristotle and Christian theology, has been particularly influential in developing the discipline of natural theology. This discipline seeks to establish the existence and nature of God through reason and rational inquiry rather than relying solely on religious revelation.
His legacy continues to shape modern discussions around faith, reason, ethics, and the nature of existence, cementing his status as one of history’s most influential theologians and philosophers.