St. Thomas Aquinas

January 28 is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church whose Summa theologiae is the most influential work of Catholic theology ever written. Born at Roccasecca, between Rome and Monte Cassino, he was educated at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino and at the University of Naples, where he entered the Order of Preachers in 1244 against his family's wishes. He studied under Albert the Great at Paris and Cologne, and taught at Paris, Rome, and Naples.

The Summa — the summary of theology in three parts, written for beginners — synthesized the Catholic faith with the recovered Aristotle of the 13th century, and gave the Church its doctrine of the sacraments, of the virtues, of the Incarnation, and of the divine nature. The Eucharistic hymns Thomas wrote for the new feast of Corpus Christi — the Pange lingua, the Verbum supernum, the Tantum ergo, the Adoro te devote — are sung in every Catholic church at Benediction. He died at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova in 1274, on his way to the Council of Lyon.

The body of Thomas lies in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse, to which it was translated in 1369, and the skull was translated to the Cathedral of Priverno in 1826. The Dominican church at Roccasecca, near his birthplace, marks the family castle. He was canonized in 1323 and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V in 1567. From Paris, where he taught, to Rome, where the Summa was written, to Lyon, where he died on his way to council, the January 28 feast is the feast of the angelic doctor.