St Thomas, Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's The Liturgical Year

The Saint we are to honour today, is one of the sublimest and most lucid interpreters of Divine Truth. He rose up in the Church many centuries after the Apostolic Age, nay, long after the four great Latin Doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. The Church, the ever young and joyful Mother, is justly proud of her Thomas, and has honored him with the splendid title of The Angelical Doctor, on account of the extraordinary gift of understanding wherewith God had blessed him; just as his co-temporary and friend, St. Bonaventure, has been called the Seraphic Doctor, on account of the wonderful unction which abounds in the writings of this worthy disciple of St. Francis. Thomas of Aquin is an honour to mankind, for perhaps there never existed a man whose intellect surpassed his. He is one of the brightest ornaments of the Church, for not one of her Doctors has equaled him in the clearness and precision wherewith he has explained her doctrines. He received the thanks of Christ himself, for having well written of him and his mysteries. How welcome ought not this Feast of such a Saint to be to us during this Season of the Year, when our main study is our return and conversion to God? What Greater blessing could we have than the coming to know this God? Has not our ignorance of God, and his claims, and his perfections, been the greatest misery of our past lives? Here we have a Saint whose prayers are most efficacious in procuring for us that knowledge, which is unspotted, and converteth souls, and giveth wisdom to little ones, and gladdeneth the heart, and enlighteneth the eyes. (Psalms 18: 8-9) Happy we if this spiritual wisdom be granted us! We shall then see the vanity of everything that is not eternal, the righteousness of the divine commandments, the malice of sin, and the infinite goodness wherewith God treats us when we repent.

Let us learn from the Church the claims of the Angelical Doctor to our admiration and confidence.

Thomas was born of noble parents, his father being Landulph, Count of Aquino, and his mother a rich Neapolitan lady, by name Theodora. When he was five years old, he was sent to Monte Cassino, that he might receive from the Benedictine Monks his first training. Thence he was sent to Naples, where he went through a course of studies, and, young as he was, joined the Order of Friars Preachers. This step caused great displeasure to his mother and brothers, and it was therefore deemed advisable to send him to Paris. He was waylaid by his brothers, who seized him, and imprisoned him in the castle of Saint John. After having made several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to abandon the holy life he had chosen, they assailed his purity, by sending to him a wicked woman: but he drove her from his chamber with a fire-brand. The young saint then threw himself on his knees before a crucifix. Having prayed some time, he fell asleep, and it seemed to him that two Angels approached to him, and tightly girded his loins. From that time forward, he never suffered the slightest feeling against purity. His sisters, also, had come to the castle, and tried to make him change his mind ; but he, on the contrary, persuaded them to despise the world, and devote themselves to the exercise of a holy life.

It was contrived that he should escape through a window of the castle, and return to Naples. He was thence taken by John the Teutonic, the general of the Dominican Order, first to Rome, and then to Paris, in which latter city he was taught philosophy and theology by Albert the Great. At the age of twenty-five, he received the title of Doctor, and explained in the public schools, and in a manner that made him the object of universal admiration, the writings of philosophers and theologians. He always applied himself to prayer, before reading or writing anything. When he met with any difficult passage in the Sacred Scriptures, he both fasted and prayed. He used often to say to his companion, Brother Reginald, that if he knew anything, it was more a gift from God, than the fruit of his own study and labor. One day, when at Naples, as he was praying, with more than his usual fervor, before a crucifix, he heard these words: “Well has thou written of me, Thomas! What reward wouldst thou have me give thee?” He answered: “None other, Lord, but thyself.”

There was not a book which he had not most carefully read. His favorite spiritual book was the Conferences of the Fathers. He was most zealous in preaching the Word of God. On one occasion, during Easter Week, as he was preaching in the Church of St. Peter, a woman touched the hem of his habit, and was cured of an issue of blood. His writings are so extraordinary, not only for their number and their variety, but also for their clearness in the explaining difficult points of doctrine, that he has received the title of Angelical Doctor. He was invited to Rome by Pope Urban IV, but nothing could induce him to accept the honors which were offered him. He refused the Archbishopric of Naples, which Pope Clement IV begged him to accept. He was sent by Gregory X to the Council of Lyons; but having got as far as Fossa Nova, he fell sick, and was received as a guest in the Monastery of that place, and wrote a commentary on the Canticle of Canticles. There he died, in the fiftieth year of his age, in the year of our Lord 1274, on the Nones of March (March 7th). His sanctity was made manifest by miracles, both before and after his death. He was canonized by John XXII, in the year 1323. His body was translated to Toulouse, during the Pontificate of Urban V.

The Dominican Order, of which St. Thomas is one of the grandest ornaments, has inserted the three following Hymns in its Liturgy of his Feast.

HYMN

Let the assembly of the Faithful exult in spiritual joy, and give praise to God, who has made a new sun to shine in our world, and disperse the clouds of error.

It was in the evening of the world that Thomas shed his treasures of heavenly light. Heaven had enriched him with gifts of virtue and wisdom:

From this fountain of light we have derived a brighter knowledge of the Word, the understanding of the Divine Scriptures, and the rules of truth.

The effulgent rays of his wisdom, the light of his spotless life, and the splendour of his miracles, have filled the universe with joy.

Praise, then, be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. And may our God, by the intercession and merits of his Saint, admit us into the choir of the blessed in heaven. Amen.

HYMN

Noble by birth and parentage, Thomas, whilst in the bloom of youth, embraced the Order of Preachers.

Like to the star of morn, brightly does he shine amidst the luminaries of earth, and, more than any Doctor of the Church, refutes the doctrines of the Gentiles.

He explores the depth of mysteries, and brings to light the hidden gems of truth, for he teaches us what the mind of man had else never understood.

God gives him to the Church as a Fountain of wisdom, like to that four-branched river of Paradise. He made him to be her Gedeon’s sword, her Trumpet, her Vase, her Torch.

Praise, then, be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. And may our God, by the intercession and merits of his Saint, admit us into the choir of the blessed in heaven. Amen.

HYMN

Dear Church, our Mother! the happy death of thy Thomas deserves a hymn of praise. By the merits of Him that is the Word of Life, he is now in endless joy.

It was at Fossa Nova that the rich treasury of grace was welcomed as a guest. It was there that he received from Christ the inheritance of eternal glory.

He has left us the fruits of truth; he has left us his glorious relics, which breathe forth a heavenly fragrance, and work cures for the suffering sick.

Eight well, then, is honour his clue; earth, and sea, and heaven, all may give him praise. May his prayers and merits intercede for us with God.

Praise, then, be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. And may our God, by the intercession and merits of his Saint, admit us into the choir of the blessed in heaven. Amen.

How shall we worthily praise thee, most holy Doctor! How shall we thank thee for what thou hast taught us? The rays of the Divine Sun of Justice beamed strongly upon thee, and thou hast reflected them upon us. When we picture thee contemplating Truth, we think of those words of our Lord: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) Thy victory over the concupiscence of the flesh merited for thee the highest spiritual delights; and our Redeemer chose thee, because of the purity of thy angelic soul, to compose for his Church the Office whereby she should celebrate the Divine Sacrament of his Love. Learning did not impair thy humility. Prayer was ever thy guide in thy search after Truth; and there was but one reward, for which, after all thy labors, thou wast ambitious, the possession of God.

Thy life, alas! was short. The very master-piece of thy angelical writings was left unfinished. But thou hast not lost thy power of working for the Church. Aid her in her combats against error. She holds thy teachings in the highest estimation, because she feels that none of her Saints has ever known so well as thou, the secrets and Mysteries of her Divine Spouse. Now, perhaps more than in any other age, Truths are decayed—they are diminished among the children of men; (Psalms 11:2) strengthen us in our Faith, get us Light. Check the conceit of those shallow self-constituted philosophers, who dare to sit in judgment over the actions and decisions of the Church, and force their contemptible theories upon a generation that is too ill-instructed to detect their fallacies. The atmosphere around us is gloomy with ignorance; loose principles, and truths spoilt by cowardly compromise, are the fashion of our times; pray for us, bring us back to that bold and simple acceptance of truth, which gives life to the intellect and joy to the heart.

Pray, too, for the grand Order, which loves thee so devoutly, and honors thee as one of the most illustrious of its many glorious children. Draw down upon the family of thy Patriarch Saint Dominic the choicest blessings, for it is one of the most powerful auxiliaries of God’s Church.

We are on the eve of the holy season of Lent; we are preparing for the great work of earnest conversion of our lives. Thy prayers must gain for us the knowledge both of the God we have offended by our sins, and of the wretched state of a soul that is at enmity with its Maker. Knowing this, we shall hate our sins; we shall desire to purify our souls in the Blood of the spotless Lamb; we shall generously atone for our faults by works of penance.