Dominican Friar and Doctor of the Church (1225-1274)
His life
+ Thomas was in the Aquino region of Italy. Educated by the Benedictine monks at the great abbey of Monte Cassino, he also studied at the University of Naples.
+ Despite severe opposition from his family, he entered the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) in 1244. He was sent to study in Cologne, Germany, where he was a student of Saint Albert the Great. Ordained a priest in 1250, he was sent to teach at the University of Paris.
+ Thomas Aquinas is especially remembered for his commentaries on the writings of Aristotle and the Sentences of Peter Lombard, giving rise to the Scholastic movement of theology.
+ His greatest work—and one which continues to define much of Roman Catholic theology—is the Summa Theologica. This systematic exploration of theology combined Greek wisdom with the tenets of Sacred Scripture and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, as well as the movements of medieval theology.
+ Saint Thomas Aquinas died on March 7, 1274, as he traveled to the Second Council of Lyons. He was canonized in 1323 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567. He is honored as the patron of Catholic schools, theologians, and philosophers.
For prayer and reflection
“If you seek the example of love: ‘Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends.’ Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.”—Saint Thomas Aquinas
Spiritual bonus
On January 28 we also remember Blessed Olga Bida. A Greek Catholic from Tsebliv, Ukraine, she became a Sister of St. Joseph and served in her community’s missions as a catechist and, later, as novice mistress. She became superior of the community in Kheriv, where she was arrested by the Community authorities in 1951. Exiled to a labor camp in the Tomsk region of Siberia, she continued to serve the other women religious who were imprisoned there by organizing the exiled sisters into prayer and support groups. She died in Kharsk, Russia, on January 28, 1952, and was beatified with other martyrs who died under Community rule in 2001.
Prayer
O God, who made Saint Thomas Aquinas
outstanding in his zeal for holiness
and his study of sacred doctrine,
grant us, we pray,
that we may understand what he taught
and imitate what he accomplished.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
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