Thomas Aquinas

Who they were

Thomas was born into the family of the counts of Aquino at the castle of Roccasecca, south of Rome. His father wanted him to become abbot of Monte Cassino, but at Naples Thomas joined the Dominicans, a mendicant order. His brothers imprisoned him to change his mind, even sending a woman into his cell, whom he drove out with a burning brand; in the end he escaped.

He studied under St Albert the Great at Cologne, who defended the silent student his classmates called 'the dumb ox': 'this ox will bellow so loud that the whole world will hear.' He taught in Paris, wrote the hymns for Corpus Christi including the Pange Lingua, and began the Summa Theologiae. On 6 December 1273 he stopped writing, saying everything he had written seemed like straw beside what had been revealed to him. Travelling to the Council of Lyon at the Pope's request, he fell ill and died at the abbey of Fossanova in 1274, aged 49.

The miracles

When the devil's advocate at his canonisation process objected that there were no miracles, one of the cardinals answered, 'Tot miraculis, quot articulis': he worked as many miracles as he wrote articles. Pope Pius V proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church in 1567. He is patron of Catholic schools.

Why that counted as sanctity

Thomas gave the Church its greatest synthesis of faith and reason, showing that reason, rightly used, leads toward God and that faith does not destroy it but perfects it. Yet he held it all as straw beside God Himself, and his learning was always prayer: a humble friar who wanted nothing but Christ.

Connected on this site

• Albertus Magnus Saint Teacher, Influenced them
  “He taught at Cologne and Paris, where his best pupil was Thomas Aquinas, whom he took back to Cologne to found the Dominican house of studies.” — this site's research
• Anselm of Canterbury Saint Influenced them
• Augustine of Hippo Saint Influenced them
  “Thomas Aquinas.” — Wikipedia
• Gregory I Saint Influenced them
• Paul the Apostle Saint Influenced them
• Boethius Blessed Influenced them
• John Henry Newman Saint
  “He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV in 2025 and was also named co-patron of Catholic education, joining Saint Thomas Aquinas.” — Wikipedia
• Louis IX of France Saint
  “He welcomed St Bonaventure and St Thomas Aquinas at his table, founded the Sorbonne with Robert de Sorbon in 1257, and worked above all for peace between France and England.” — this site's research
• Mary Magdalene Saint
  “The risen Christ appeared first to her and sent her to the apostles, so that St Thomas Aquinas called her 'apostle of the apostles'.” — this site's research
• Pius V Saint
  “Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.” — Wikipedia
• Ambrose of Siena Blessed
  “He entered the Dominicans at seventeen, studied in Paris under Albert the Great with St Thomas Aquinas as a fellow student, and taught with Thomas at Cologne.” — this site's research
• Ioan Suciu Blessed
  “Suciu studied in Rome, Italy first at Sant'Atanasio and then at the Pontificium Institutum Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, where after six years of study he received a Doctorate in Sacred Theology on 29 November 1931, and was ordained to the priesthood.” — Wikipedia