St. Thomas Aquinas: Life, Writings, Prayers and Feast Day

Few saints have shaped the way Catholics think about God as much as St. Thomas Aquinas. Yet the man behind the great books was humble, prayerful and so quiet that his classmates once called him “the dumb ox.”

A Vocation His Family Opposed

Thomas was born around 1225 at Roccasecca, near Aquino in southern Italy, into a noble family. As a boy he was sent to the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, and his family hoped he would one day be its abbot.

At the University of Naples, however, he met the Dominicans, a new order of preaching friars who lived in poverty. He asked to join them. His family was furious. His brothers seized him on the road and held him at the family castle for about a year. They could not change his mind, and he was finally allowed to return to the friars.

The Dumb Ox

Thomas studied in Paris and Cologne under St. Albert the Great. He was large, quiet and slow to speak, and his fellow students nicknamed him “the dumb ox.” St. Albert is said to have answered that one day the bellowing of this ox would be heard throughout the world.

He went on to teach in Paris, Naples, Rome and other cities, and he wrote constantly, often dictating to several secretaries at once.

His Great Works

• The Summa Theologiae, a vast summary of Catholic teaching written for students, covering God, creation, the moral life, Christ and the sacraments.
• The Summa Contra Gentiles, which explains the faith to those who do not share it.
• Commentaries on Scripture, especially the Gospels and the letters of St. Paul.
• The prayers and hymns for the feast of Corpus Christi, including the Pange Lingua, whose last verses, the Tantum Ergo, are sung at Benediction.

Faith and Reason

Thomas taught that faith and reason are both gifts of God. Reason can know that God exists and something of what He is like. Faith tells us what reason could never reach alone, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation. Because both come from the same God, they cannot truly contradict each other. The Catechism teaches the same thing (CCC 159).

“All That I Have Written Seems Like Straw”

In December 1273, while celebrating Mass, Thomas had an experience that changed him. He stopped writing. When his secretary, Reginald, urged him to continue, he answered that everything he had written seemed like straw compared to what had been revealed to him.

He died a few months later, on March 7, 1274, at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova, on his way to the Council of Lyon. He was canonized in 1323.

A Prayer Before Study (Original Prayer)

St. Thomas Aquinas, you loved the truth with your whole heart. Pray that I may seek God in all that I learn, keep my mind humble and my heart pure, and come at last to see Him face to face. Amen.

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Learn about St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Dominic, who founded Thomas’s order, or classic Catholic books.