|
St Thomas Of Aquino
ST THOMAS OF AQUINO, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH AND
CONFESSOR—1225-1274 A.D.
Feast: January 28
[From
his life written by Bartholomew of Lucca, some time the saint's confessor: also
another life compiled for his canonization by William of Tocco, Prior of
Benevento, who had been personally acquainted with the saint, &c. See F.
Touron, in his life of St. Thomas, in quarto, Paris, 1737.]
The counts of Aquino, who have flourished in the kingdom of Naples these last
ten centuries, derive their pedigree from a certain Lombard prince. They were
allied to the kings of Sicily and Arragon, to St. Louis of France, and many
other sovereign houses of Europe. Our saint's grandfather having married the
sister of the Emperor Frederick I, he was himself grand-nephew to that prince,
and second cousin to the Emperor Henry VI, and in the third degree to Frederick
II.[1] His father, Landulph, was Count of Aquino, and Lord of Loretto and
Belcastro: his mother Theodora was daughter to the Count of Theate. The saint
was born towards the end of the year 1225. St. Austin observes[2] that the most
tender age is subject to various passions, as of impatience, choler, jealousy,
spite, and the like, which appear in children: no such thing was seen in Thomas.
The serenity of his countenance, the constant evenness of his temper, his
modesty and sweetness, were sensible marks that God prevented him with his early
graces. The Count of Aquino conducted him to the Abbey of Mount Cassino, when he
was but five years old, to be instructed by those good monks in the first
principles of religion and learning; and his tutors soon saw with joy the
rapidity of his progress, his great talents, and his happy dispositions to
virtue. He was but ten years of age when the abbot told his father that it was
time to send him to some university. The count, before he sent him to Naples,
took him for some months to see his mother at his seat at Loretto, the place
which about the end of that century grew famous for devotion to our Lady. Thomas
was the admiration of the whole family. Amidst so much company, and so many
servants, he appeared always as much recollected, and occupied on God, as he had
been in the monastery; he spoke little, and always to the purpose; and he
employed all his time in prayer, or serious and profitable exercises. His great
delight seemed to be to intercede for, and to distribute, his parents' plentiful
alms among the poor at the gate, whom he studied by a hundred ingenious
contrivances to relieve. He robbed himself of his own victuals for that purpose;
which his father having discovered, he gave him leave to distribute things at
discretion, which liberty he made good use of for the little time he stayed. The
countess, apprehensive of the dangers her son's innocence might be exposed to in
an academy, desired that he should perform his studies with a private preceptor
under her own eyes; but the father, knowing the great advantages of emulation
and mutual communication in studies, was determined to send him to Naples, where
the Emperor Frederick II, being exasperated against Bologna, had lately, in
1224, erected an university, forbidding students to resort to any other in
Italy. This immediately drew thither great numbers of students, and with them
disorder and licentiousness, like that described by St. Austin in the great
schools of Carthage.[3] Thomas soon perceived the dangers, and regretted the
sanctuary of Mount Cassino: but by his extraordinary watchfulness, he lived here
like the young Daniel in the midst of Babylon, or Toby in the infidel Ninive. He
guarded his eyes with an extreme caution, shunned entirely all conversation with
any woman whatever, and with any young men whose steady virtue did not render
him perfectly secure as to their behaviour. Whilst others went to profane
diversions, he retired into some church, or into his closet, making prayer and
study his only pleasure. He learned rhetoric under Peter Martin, and philosophy
under Peter of Hibernia, one of the most learned men of his age, and with such
wonderful progress that he repeated the lessons more clearly than the master had
explained them: yet his greater care was to advance daily in the science of the
saints, by holy prayer, and all good works. His humility concealed them; but his
charity and fervour sometimes betrayed his modesty, and discovered them,
especially in his great alms, for which he deprived himself of almost all
things, and in which he was careful to hide from his left hand what his right
did.
The order of St. Dominic, who had been dead twenty-two years, then abounded
with men full of the Spirit of God. The frequent conversations Thomas had with
one of that body, a very interior holy man, filled his heart with heavenly
devotion and comfort, and inflamed him daily with a more ardent love of God,
which so burned in his breast that at his prayers his countenance seemed one
day, as it were, to dart rays of light, and he conceived a vehement desire to
consecrate himself wholly to God in that order. His tutor perceived his
inclinations, and informed the count of the matter, who omitted neither threats
nor promises to defeat such a design. But the saint, not listening to flesh and
blood in the call of heaven, demanded with earnestness to be admitted into the
order, and accordingly received the habit in the convent of Naples, in 1243,
being then seventeen years old. The Countess Theodora his mother, being informed
of it, set out for Naples to disengage him, if possible, from that state of
life. Her son, on the first news of her journey, begged his superiors to remove
him, as they did first to the convent of St. Sabina in Rome, and soon after to
Paris, out of the reach of his relations. Two of his brothers, Landulph and
Reynold, commanders in the emperor's army in Tuscany, by her direction so well
guarded all the roads that he fell into their hands near Acqua-pendente. They
endeavoured to pull off his habit, but he resisted them so violently that they
conducted him in it to the seat of his parents, called Rocca-Secca. The mother,
overjoyed at their success, made no doubt of overcoming her son's resolution.
She endeavoured to persuade him that to embrace such an order against his
parents' advice could not be the call of heaven; adding all manner of reasons,
fond caresses, entreaties, and tears. Nature made her eloquent and pathetic. He
appeared sensible of her affliction, but his constancy was not to be shaken. His
answers were modest and respectful, but firm in showing his resolution to be the
call of God, and ought consequently to take place of all other views whatsoever,
even for his service any other way. At last, offended at his unexpected
resistance, she expressed her displeasure in very choleric words, and ordered
him to be more closely confined and guarded, and that no one should see him but
his two sisters. The reiterated solicitations of the young ladies were a long
and violent assault. They omitted nothing that flesh and blood could inspire on
such an occasion, and represented to him the danger of causing the death of his
mother by grief. He, on the contrary, spoke to them in so moving a manner on the
contempt of the world, and the love of virtue, that they both yielded to the
force of his reasons for his quitting the world, and, by his persuasion, devoted
themselves to a sincere practice of piety.
This solitude furnished him with the most happy opportunity for holy
contemplation and assiduous prayer. Some time after, his sisters conveyed to him
some books, viz. a Bible, Aristotle's logics, and the works of the Master of the
Sentences. During this interval his two brothers, Landulph and Reynold,
returning home from the army, found their mother in the greatest affliction, and
the young novice triumphant in his resolution. They would needs undertake to
overcome him, and began their assault by shutting him up in a tower of the
castle. They tore in pieces his habit on his back, and after bitter reproaches
and dreadful threats, they left him, hoping his confinement and the
mortifications every one strove to give him would shake his resolution. This not
succeeding, the devil suggested to these two young officers a new artifice for
diverting him from pursuing his vocation. They secretly introduced one of the
most beautiful and most insinuating young strumpets of the country into his
chamber, promising her a considerable reward in case she could draw him into
sin. She employed all the arms of Satan to succeed in so detestable a design.
The saint, alarmed and affrighted at the danger, profoundly humbled himself, and
cried out to God most earnestly for his protection; then snatching up a
firebrand, struck her with it, and drove her out of his chamber. After this
victory, not moved with pride, but blushing with confusion for having been so
basely assaulted, he fell on his knees and thanked God for his merciful
preservation, consecrated to him anew his chastity, and redoubled his prayers,
and the earnest cry of his heart with sighs and tears, to obtain the grace of
being always faithful to his promises. Then falling into a slumber, as the most
ancient historians of his life relate,[4] he was visited by two angels, who
seemed to gird him round the waist with a cord so tight that it awaked him, and
made him to cry out. His guards ran in, but he kept his secret to himself It was
only a little before his death that he disclosed this incident to F. Reynold,
his confessor, adding that he had received this favour about thirty years
before, from which time he had never been annoyed with temptations of the flesh;
yet he constantly used the utmost caution and watchfulness against that enemy,
and he would otherwise have deserved to forfeit that grace. One heroic victory
sometimes obtains of God a recompense and triumph of this kind. Our saint having
suffered in silence this imprisonment and persecution upwards of a twelvemonth,
some say two years, at length, on the remonstrances of Pope Innocent IV and the
Emperor Frederick, on account of so many acts of violence in his regard, both
the countess and his brothers began to relent. The Dominicans of Naples being
informed of this, and that his mother was disposed to connive at measures that
might be taken to procure his escape, they hastened in disguise to Rocca-Secca,
where his sister, knowing that the countess no longer opposed his escape,
contrived his being let down out of his tower in a basket. He was received by
his brethren in their arms, and carried with joy to Naples. The year following
he there made his profession, looking on that day as the happiest of his whole
life in which he made a sacrifice of his liberty that he might belong to God
alone. But his mother and brothers renewed their complaints to Pope Innocent IV,
who sent for Thomas to Rome, and examined him on the subject of his vocation to
the state of religion, in their presence; and having received entire
satisfaction on this head, the pope admired his virtue, and approved of his
choice of that state of life, which from that time he was suffered to pursue in
peace. Albertus Magnus, teaching then at Cologne, the general, John the
Teutonic, took the saint with him from Rome to Paris, and thence to Cologne.
Thomas gave all his time which was not employed in devotion and other duties to
his studies, retrenching part of that which was allowed for his meals and sleep,
not out of a vain passion, or the desire of applause, but for the advancement of
God's honour and the interests of religion, according to what he himself
teaches.[5] His humility made him conceal his progress and deep penetration,
insomuch that his school-fellows thought he learned nothing, and on account of
his silence called him the Dumb Ox and the Great Sicilian Ox. But the brightness
of his genius, his quick and deep penetration and learning were at last
discovered, in spite of all his endeavours to conceal them: for his master,
Albertus, having propounded to him several questions on the most knotty and
obscure points, his answers, which the duty of obedience extorted, astonished
the audience; and Albertus, not able to contain his joy and admiration, said,
"We call him the Dumb Ox, but he will give such a bellow in learning as
will be heard all over the world." This applause made no impression on the
humble saint. He continued the same in simplicity, modesty, silence, and
recollection, because his heart was the same; equally insensible to praises and
humiliations, full of nothing but of God and his own insufficiency, never
reflecting on his own qualifications, or on what was the opinion of others
concerning him. In his first year, under Albertus Magnus, he wrote comments on
Aristotle's Ethics. The general chapter of the Dominicans, held at Cologne in
1245, deputed Albertus to teach at Paris, in their College of St. James, which
the university had given them; and it is from that college they are called in
France Jacobins. St. Thomas was sent with him to continue his studies there. His
school exercises did not interrupt his prayer. By an habitual sense of the
divine presence, and devout aspirations, he kept his heart continually raised to
God; and in difficult points redoubled with more earnestness his fervour in his
prayers than his application to study. This he found attended with such success
that he often said that he had learned less by books than before his crucifix or
at the foot of the altar. His constant attention to God always filled his soul
with joy, which appeared in his very countenance, and made his conversation
altogether heavenly. He was so perfectly mortified, and dead to his senses, that
he ate without reflecting either on the kind or quality of his food, so that
after meals he often knew not what he had been eating.
In the year 1248, being twenty-two years of age, he was appointed by the
general chapter to teach at Cologne, together with his old master Albertus,
whose high reputation he equaled in his very first lessons. He then also began
to publish his first works, which consist of comments on the Ethics, and other
philosophical works of Aristotle. No one was more courteous and affable, but it
was his principle to shun all unnecessary visits. To prepare himself for holy
orders he redoubled his watchings, prayer, and other spiritual exercises. His
devotion to the blessed sacrament was extraordinary. He spent several hours of
the day, and part of the night, before the altar, humbling himself in acts of
profound adoration, and melting with love in contemplation of the immense
charity of that Man-God, whom he there adored. In saying mass he seemed to be in
raptures, and often quite dissolved in tears; a glowing frequently appeared in
his eyes and countenance, which showed the ardour with which his heart burnt
within him. His devotion was most fervent during the precious moments after he
had received the divine mysteries; and after saying mass he usually served at
another, or at least heard one. This fire and zeal appeared also in his sermons,
at Cologne, Paris, Rome, and in other cities of Italy. He was everywhere heard
as an angel: even the Jews ran of their own accord to hear him, and many of them
were converted. His zeal made him solicitous, in the first place, for the
salvation of his relations. His example and exhortations induced them to an
heroic practice of piety. His eldest sister consecrated herself to God in St.
Mary's at Capua, and died abbess of that monastery: the younger, Theodora,
married the Count of Marsico, and lived and died in great virtue; as did his
mother. His two brothers, Landulph and Reynold, became sincere penitents. St.
Thomas, after teaching four years at Cologne, was sent in I'S? to Paris. His
reputation for perspicuity and solidity drew immediately to his school a great
number of auditors. St. Thomas, with great reluctancy, compelled by holy
obedience, consented to be admitted doctor, on the 23rd of October, in 1257,
being then thirty-one years old. The professors of the University of Paris being
divided about the question of the accidents remaining really, or only in
appearance, in the blessed sacrament of the altar, they agreed, in 1258, to
consult our saint. The young doctor, not puffed up by such an honour, applied
himself first to God by prayer, then he wrote upon that question the treatise
still extant, and, carrying it to the church, laid it on the altar. The most
ancient author of his life assures us, that while the saint remained in prayer
on that occasion, some of the brethren who were present saw him raised a little
above the ground.[6]
The holy king, St. Louis, had so great an esteem for St. Thomas that he
consulted him in affairs of state, and ordinarily informed him, the evening
before, of any affair of importance that was to be treated of in council, that
he might be the more ready to give advice on the point. The saint avoided the
honour of dining with the king as often as he could excuse himself; and, when
obliged to assist at court, appeared there as recollected as in his convent. One
day at the king's table the saint cried out, "The argument is conclusive
against the Manichees."[7] His prior being with him, bade him remember
where he was. The saint would have asked the king's pardon, but that good
prince, fearing he should forget the argument that had occurred to his mind,
caused his secretary to write it down for him. In the year 1259 St. Thomas
assisted at the thirty-sixth general chapter of his order, held at Valenciennes,
which deputed him, in conjunction with Albertus Magnus and three others, to draw
up rules for studies, which are still extant in the acts of that chapter. In
1261, Urban IV called St. Thomas to Rome, and, by his order, the general
appointed him to teach here. The pope, however, obliged him always to attend his
person. Thus it happened that the saint taught and preached in all the towns
where that pope ever resided, as in Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fondi, and Perugia.
He also taught at Bologna, Naples, etc.
The fruits of his preaching were no less wonderful than those of his pen.
Whilst he was preaching on Good Friday on the love of God for man, and our
ingratitude to him, his whole auditory melted into tears to such a degree that
he was obliged to stop several times that they might recover themselves. His
discourse on the following Sunday, concerning the glory of Christ, and the
happiness of those who rise with him by grace, was no less pathetic and
affecting. William of Tocco adds, that as the saint was coming out of St.
Peter's Church the same day, a woman was cured of the bloody flux by touching
the hem of his garment. The conversion of two considerable Rabbins seemed still
a greater miracle. St. Thomas had held a long conference with them at a casual
meeting in Cardinal Richard's villa, and they agreed to resume it the next day.
The saint spent the foregoing night in prayer at the foot of the altar. The next
morning these two most obstinate Jews came to him of their own accord, not to
dispute, but to embrace the faith, and were followed by many others. In the year
1263 the Dominicans held their fortieth general chapter in London. The first
part of his theological Summ, St. Thomas composed at Bologna: he was called
thence to Naples. Here it was that, according to Tocco and others, Dominic
Caserte beheld him, while in fervent prayer, raised from the ground, and heard a
voice from the crucifix directed to him in these words: "Thou hast written
well of me, Thomas; what recompense cost thou desire?" He answered,
"No other than thyself, O Lord."
From the 6th of December in 1273 to the 7th of March following, the day of
his death, he neither dictated nor wrote anything on theological matters. He
from that time laid aside his studies to fix his thoughts and heart entirely on
eternity, and to aspire with the greatest ardour and most languishing desires to
the enjoyment of God in perfect love. Pope Gregory X had called a general
council, the second of Lyons, with the view of extinguishing the Greek schism,
and raising succours to defend the holy land against the Saracens. The
ambassadors of the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, together with the Greek
prelates, were to assist at it. The council was to meet on the 1st of May, in
1274. His holiness, by brief directed to our saint, ordered him to repair
thither, and to prepare himself to defend the catholic cause against the Greek
schismatics.
Though indisposed, he set out from Naples about the end of January. His dear
friend, F. Reynold of Piperno, was appointed his companion, and ordered to take
care that he did not neglect himself, which the saint was apt to do. St. Thomas
on the road called at the Castle of Magenza, the seat of his niece Francisca of
Aquino, married to the Count of Cecan. Here his distemper increased; this,
however, did not hinder him from proceeding on his journey till, his fever
increasing, he was forced to stop at Fossa-Nuova, a famous abbey of the
Cistercians, in the diocese of Terracina, where formerly stood the city called
Forum Appii. Entering the monastery, he went first to pray before the blessed
sacrament, according to his custom. He poured forth his soul with extraordinary
fervour, in the presence of Him who now called him to his kingdom. Passing
thence into the cloister, which he never lived to go out of, he repeated these
words: "This is my rest for ages without end."[8] He was lodged in the
abbot's apartment, where he lay ill for near a month. The good monks treated him
with uncommon veneration and esteem, and as if he had been an angel from heaven.
They would not employ any of their servants about him, but chose to serve him
themselves in the meanest offices, as in cutting or carrying wood for him to
burn, &c. His patience, humility, constant recollection, and prayer were
equally their astonishment and edification.
The nearer he saw himself to the term of all his desires, the entering into
the joy of his Lord, the more tender and inflamed were his longings after death.
He had continually in his mouth these words of St. Austin,[9] "Then shall I
truly live, when I shall be quite filled with you alone, and your love; now I am
a burden to myself, because I am not entirely full of you." In such pious
transports of heavenly love he never ceased sighing after the glorious day of
eternity. The monks begged he would dictate an exposition of the Book of
Canticles, in imitation of St. Bernard. He answered, "Give me St. Bernard's
spirit, and I will obey." But at last, to renounce perfectly his own will,
he dictated the exposition of that most mysterious of all the divine books. It
begins, "Solomon inspiratus." It is not what his erudition might have
suggested, but what love inspired him with in his last moments, when his pure
soul was hastening to break the chains of mortality, and drown itself in the
ocean of God's immensity, and in the delights of eternity. The holy doctor at
last finding himself too weak to dictate any more, begged the religious to
withdraw, recommending himself to their prayers, and desiring their leave to
employ the few precious moments he had to live with God alone. He accordingly
spent them in fervent acts of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, humility, and
repentance. He made a general confession of his whole life to F. Reynold, with
abundance of tears for his imperfections and sins of frailty; for in the
judgment of those to whom he had manifested his interior, he had never offended
God by any mortal sin. And he said to F. Reynold, before his death, that he
thanked God with his whole heart for having prevented him with his grace, and
always conducted him as it were by the hand, and preserved him from any known
sin that destroys charity in the soul; adding, that this was purely God's mercy,
to which he was indebted for his preservation from every sin which he had not
committed. Having received absolution in the sentiments of the most perfect
penitent, he desired the Viaticum. Whilst the abbot and community were preparing
to bring it, he begged to be taken off his bed, and laid upon ashes spread upon
the floor. Thus lying on the ground, weak in body but vigorous in mind, he
waited for the priest with tears of the most tender devotion. When he saw the
host in the priest's hand, he said, "I firmly believe that Jesus Christ,
true God and true Man, is present in this august sacrament. I adore you, my God,
and my Redeemer: I receive You, the price of my redemption, the Viaticum of my
pilgrimage; for whose honour I have studied, laboured, preached, and taught. I
hope I never advanced any tenet as your word which I had not learned from you.
If through ignorance I have done otherwise, I revoke everything of that kind,
and submit all my writings to the judgment of the holy Roman Church." Then
recollecting himself, after other acts of faith, adoration, and love, he
received the holy Viaticum; but remained on the ashes till he had finished his
thanksgiving. Growing still weaker, amidst his transports of love, he desired
extreme unction, which he received, answering himself to all the prayers. After
this, he lay in peace and joy, as appeared by the serenity of his countenance;
and he was heard to pronounce these aspirations: "Soon, soon will the God
of all comfort complete his mercies on me, and fill all my desires. I shall
shortly be satiated in him, and drink of the torrent of his delights: be
inebriated from the abundance of his house, and in him who is the source of life
I shall behold the true light." Seeing all in tears about him he comforted
them, saying, Death was his gain and his joy. F. Reynold said he had hoped to
see him triumph over the adversaries of the church in the council of Lyons, and
placed in a rank in which he might do it some signal service. The saint
answered, "I have begged of God, as the greatest favour, to die a simple
religious man, and I now thank him for it. It is a greater benefit than he has
granted to many of his holy servants, that he is pleased to call me out of this
world so early to enter into his joy; wherefore grieve not for me who am
overwhelmed with joy." He returned thanks to the abbot and monks of Fossa-Nuova
for their charity to him. One of the community asked him by what means we might
live always faithful to God's grace. He answered, "Be assured that he who
shall always walk faithfully in his presence—always ready to give him an
account of all his actions—shall never be separated from him by consenting to
sin." These were his last words to men, after which he only spoke to God in
prayer, and gave up the ghost, on the 7th of March, in 1274, a little after
midnight: some say in the fiftieth year of his age; but Ptolemy of Lucca, and
other contemporary authors, say expressly in his forty-eighth, which also agrees
with his whole history. He was very tall, and every way proportioned.
The concourse of people at the saint's funeral was extraordinary: several
monks of that house, and many other persons, were cured by his relics and
intercession, of which many instances, judicially proved, are mentioned by
William of Tocco, in the bull of his canonization, and other authors. The
Bollandists give us other long authentic relations of the like miracles
continued afterwards, especially in the translations of those holy relics. The
University of Paris sent to the general and provincial of the Dominicans a
letter of condolence upon his death, giving the highest commendations to the
saint's learning and sanctity, and begging the treasure of his holy body.
Naples, Rome, and many other universities, princes, and orders contended no less
for it. One of his hands, uncorrupt, was cut off in 1288, and given to his
sister, the Countess Theodora, who kept it in her domestic chapel of San
Severino. After her death it was given to the Dominicans' convent of Salerno.
After several contestations, Pope Urban V, many years after his death, granted
his body to the Dominicans to carry to Paris or Toulouse, as Italy already
possessed the body of St. Dominic at Bologna. The sacred treasure was carried
privately into France, and received at Toulouse in the most honourable manner:
one hundred and fifty thousand people came to meet and conduct it into the city,
having at their head Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother to King Charles V, the
archbishops of Toulouse and Narbonne, and many bishops, abbots, and noblemen. It
rests now in the Dominicans' church at Toulouse, in a rich shrine, with a
stately mausoleum over it, which reaches almost up to the roof of the church,
and hath four faces. An arm of the saint was at the same time sent to the great
convent of the Dominicans at Paris, and placed in St. Thomas's chapel in their
church, which the king declared a royal chapel. The faculty of theology meets to
assist at a high mass there on the anniversary festival of the saint. The
kingdom of Naples, after many pressing solicitations, obtained, in 1372, from
the general chapter held at Toulouse, a bone of the other arm of St. Thomas. It
was kept in the church of the Dominicans at Naples till 1603, when the city
being delivered from a public calamity by his intercession, it was placed in the
metropolitan church among the relics of the other patrons of the country. That
kingdom by the briefs of Pius V in 1567, and of Clement VIII in 1603, confirmed
by Paul V, honours him as a principal patron. He was solemnly canonized by Pope
John XXII in 1323. Pope Pius V, in 1567, commanded his festival and office to be
kept equal with those of the four doctors of the western church.
Many in their studies, as in other occupations, take great pains to little
purpose, often to draw from them the poison of vanity or error; or at least to
drain their affections, and rather to nourish pride and other vices in the heart
than to promote true virtue. Sincere humility and simplicity of heart are
essential conditions for the sanctification of studies, and for the improvement
of virtue by them. Prayer must also both go before and accompany them. St.
Thomas spoke much to God by prayer, that God might speak to him by enlightening
his understanding in his reading and studies; and he received in this what he
asked in the other exercise. This prodigy of human wit, this unparalleled
genius, which penetrated the most knotty difficulties in all the sciences,
whether sacred or profane, to which he applied himself, was accustomed to say
that he learned more at the foot of the crucifix than in books. We ought never
to set ourselves to read or study anything without having first made our morning
meditation, and without imploring in particular the divine light in everything
we read; and seasoning our studies by frequent aspirations to God in them, and
by keeping our souls in an humble attention to his presence. In intricate
difficulties we ought more earnestly prostrate at the foot of a crucifix, to ask
of Christ the resolution of our doubts. We should thus receive, in the school of
so good a master, that science which makes saints, by giving, with other
sciences, the true knowledge of God and ourselves, and purifying and kindling in
the will the fire of divine love with the sentiments of humility and other
virtues. Prayer and true virtue even naturally conduce to the perfection of
learning, in every branch; for purity of the heart, and the disengagement of the
affections from all irregular passions, render the understanding clear, qualify
the mind to judge impartially of truth in its researches, divest it of many
prejudices, the fatal sources of errors, and inspire a modest distrust in a
person's own abilities and lights. Thus virtue and learning mutually assist and
improve each other.
Endnotes
1 St. Thomas was born at Belcastro: on his ancient illustrious pedigree and
its branches which still flourish in Calabria, see Barrius, de Antiquitate et
Situ Calabriae, with the notes of Thomas Aceti, lib. iv. c. a, p. 288, &c.,
where he refutes the Bollandists, who place his birth at Aquino in Campania, on
the borders of that province.
2 L. 1. Conf. c. 7.
3 Conf. l.5, c. 8.
4 Gul. Tocco. Bern. Guid. Antonin. Malvend.
5 2, 2dae. q. 188, a. 5.
6 Gul. Tocco.
7 Conclusum est contra Manichaeos.
8 Psalm cxxxi. 14.
9 Conf. l.10, c. 28.
(Taken from Vol. I of "The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other
Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by
D. & J. Sadlier, & Company)
Provided Courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network
5817 Old Leeds Road
Irondale, AL 35210
www.ewtn.com
HOME
- EWTNews -FAITH
- TELEVISION -
RADIO -
LIBRARY -
GALLERY -
CATALOGUE -
WHAT'S NEW
MULTIMEDIA -
GENERAL
ESPAŃOL
|
|
