Saint Thomas Aquinas

Thomas was born around 1225 at the castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino in southern Italy, and was educated by the Benedictines of Monte Cassino. At about nineteen he joined the new Order of Preachers, against the will of his noble family, who held him captive for about a year trying to change his mind. Freed, he studied under Saint Albert the Great in Paris and Cologne; his quiet, heavy manner earned him the nickname "the dumb ox."

He taught in Paris and in Italy and wrote an enormous body of work, above all the Summa Theologiae, which shows how faith and reason work together. At the request of Pope Urban IV he composed the Mass and Office for Corpus Christi, including the hymns Pange Lingua and Tantum Ergo. Late in 1273, after a deep experience in prayer, he stopped writing. He died at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova on March 7, 1274, was canonized in 1323 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

His feast is kept on January 28, the day his relics were moved to Toulouse, France, in 1369; they rest in the Church of the Jacobins there. Catholic universities and schools honor him as their patron, and many students ask his help before exams. The Tantum Ergo he wrote is sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament around the world.