That gives another spot where I can hope to match him. When it comes to wisdom and holiness, he has me beat completely.
His life story is not that interesting, and in fact I've never run across a full biography of St. Thomas. Even in Louis de Wohl's novel, The Quiet Light: A Novel About Thomas Aquinas
, St. Thomas spends most of his time off-stage. He did not have the gift for saying and doing memorable things ex tempore that graced the life of a St. Francis; all we have are anecdotes here and there.Fortunately for us, the lack of biographical material means that G. K. Chesterton's habitual neglect of the lives of the subjects of his biographies isn't a problem. Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox
does well as an introduction to what we know of St. Thomas's life and an appreciation of his thought.For those who wish to dive in and read St. Thomas, perhaps the most popular option is Peter Kreeft's A Summa of the Summa
Dr. Kreeft does his best, but he runs up against my ADD in two ways: he does all the explanation in footnotes which break up the flow of the text, and he edits his selections to remove extraneous or potentially confusing material, which would be fine if it didn't ... leave the text ... littered by ellipses ... that throw me off the track ... of reading.Purists, of course, insist that the only way to learn St. Thomas is to read him directly, eschewing even footnotes. I am no purist and will happily offer two other choices. For studying St. Thomas's thought in general, my current recommendation is Ed Feser's Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide
. Feser's writing is very readable, his explanations are sensible, and (IIRC) he usually notes when there's a difference of opinion concerning what St. Thomas actually thought on a given topic.The best explanation of St. Thomas on ethics (aka natural law) comes from the late great Ralph McInerny: Ethica Thomistica: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas
. McInerny couldn't write a dull sentence even if he tried, and his explanations are clear.I noticed when preparing this that I've owned all the above books except for Feser's for at least 10 years (Feser's just came out last year, and I have not yet perfected a time machine).
St. Thomas is often thought of simply in terms of his vast intelligence. But intelligence does not make a saint. Holiness, piety, and humility do.
On the sixth of December, 1273, St. Thomas was celebrating Mass for the Feast of St. Nicholas. The details are not relayed to us, but he had an intense mystical experience after which he ceased writing entirely. Pressed to continue, he could only say that after what he had seen, all his works seemed as so much straw.
In obedience to the command of Pope Gregory X, St. Thomas set off from Paris for the Second Council of Lyons. He fell ill along the way and was forced to go to a Cistercian abbey. He died there about a month later, on March 7, 1274. His last words were spoken to one of the brothers of the abbey, who asked him how we might live always faithful to God's grace:
"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."
Though his birth year is uncertain, he was probably forty-eight years old at the time of his death.
March 7th is now reserved for the feast of the early martyrs SS. Perpetua and Felicity; January 28 is the date on which his relics were transferred to a church in Toulouse.
