Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Philosopher (January 28)

Saint Thomas Aquinas, philosopher: 1225 – 1274
(Feast day: January 28; formerly March 7)

Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in the castle of his father, Count Landulf, at Roccasecca, near Aquino, in the Kingdom of Naples.
He came from a noble Italian family, studied the arts and then joined the Dominican Order. He moved to Paris, where he studied under Albert the Great. He earned his master’s degree and became a professor at thirty-one. He taught in Italy and in Paris and wrote many works, the most important of which are:
the Summa contra Gentiles, a refutation of the opponents of the Christian religion;
his commentaries on Aristotle, in which he combined Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian thought, so that he was said to have “baptized Aristotle”;
the treatise On the Unity of the Intellect;
the treatise On the Eternity of the World;
the Summa Theologiae, his greatest work, with some three thousand articles answering about ten thousand objections. It is divided into three parts: the first on the one and triune God and creation; the second on morality; the third on Christ and the sacraments.

He fell asleep in the Lord at Fossanova in 1274. Pope John XXII canonized him in 1323, and Pope Leo XIII named him patron of Catholic schools in 1880.

Some of his sayings

Three conditions are necessary for penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin together with the intention to amend; confession of sins without leaving anything out; and satisfaction through good works.

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

It is better to pass on to others the fruits of contemplation than merely to contemplate.

To love someone is to will their good.

What we love tells us what we are.

To bear patiently the wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear in silence the wrongs done to another is a mark of imperfection, and even a sin.
Good can exist without evil, but evil cannot exist without good around it.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port for ever.

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

Prayer

Give us, O Lord, holy priests and theologians faithful to the teaching of our Mother the Church, after the example of Saint Thomas Aquinas.