Feast Day: January 28
According to legend, Saint Thomas Aquinas’ peers considered him “slow,” nicknaming him “The Dumb Ox.” One of his mentors, Saint Albertus Magnus, predicted that this silent “dumb ox” would, through his teachings, “one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world.”
The youngest of several brothers, Saint Thomas was born in 1225 in the castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino, Italy. Saint Thomas found himself drawn to the newly established Dominican Order, and despite active opposition from his prosperous family, he joined the Dominicans in 1244.
Thomas quickly advanced in his studies and his writings, which addressed such wide-ranging issues as Scripture, the nature of God, angels, truth and rationality, cognition, metaphysics, ethics, politics, literature and friendship. His sometimes-controversial writings—which plumbed the depths of each issue—not only made him the preeminent theologian of his day but also left a legacy that endures centuries later.
Among his enduring contributions are establishing the compatibility of reason and faith, the existence of truth in various disciplines and traditions (“All truth comes from the Holy Spirit”), his arguments for the existence of God (“The Five Ways”) and his Eucharistic hymns “Tantum Ergo” and “Panis Angelicus.” His best-known work is “Summa Theologica.”
His life took a sudden turn in 1273 when he experienced a vision of Jesus during an intense period of prayer before an icon of the crucified Christ. After that, those close to Saint Thomas noticed a drastic change in him. He became uninterested in writing theology “because all that I have written seems like straw to me.” He died soon after.
Today, Saint Thomas, “The Angelic Doctor,” is revered as a philosopher and theologian, and the school of thought rooted in his writings is known as “Thomism.” One of the six Youngstown diocesan high schools is named St. Thomas Aquinas High and Middle School.
