St. Thomas Aquinas

**Feast Day:** January 28 **Titles:** Doctor of the Church, Angelic Doctor, Doctor Communis, Patron of Catholic Universities Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and theologian whose synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine shaped Catholic thought for centuries. Born to nobility at Roccasecca near Aquino, he joined the Dominican Order against his family's wishes and studied under Albertus Magnus in Cologne. His connection to Orvieto is profound. From 1261 to 1265, Thomas served as conventual lector at the Dominican priory of San Domenico, where Pope Urban IV commissioned him to compose the liturgical texts for the newly established Feast of Corpus Christi following the 1263 Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena. Thomas produced the complete Office and Mass, including five hymns that remain among Catholicism's most treasured: *Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium*, *Lauda Sion Salvatorem*, *Sacris Solemniis*, *Verbum Supernum Prodiens*, and *Adoro Te Devote*. The final stanzas of *Pange Lingua*—the *Tantum Ergo*—are sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the world. A tradition holds that while Thomas prayed before a crucifix in San Domenico, Christ spoke to him: "*Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma. Quam ergo mercedem accipies?*" ("You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward will you receive?"). Thomas replied: "*Non nisi te, Domine*" ("Nothing but you, Lord"). The crucifix remains preserved in the church. During his Orvieto years, Thomas also completed his *Summa contra Gentiles* and began work on the *Summa Theologiae*, the most influential work of medieval theology. He died on March 7, 1274, at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova while traveling to the Council of Lyon. Pope John XXII canonized him in 1323, and Pope Pius V declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1567.