Saint Thomas Aquinas
The Story of the Dumb Ox
Item Number: 67
"The Dumb Ox" was a perfect nickname for young Thomas Aquinas-although it was none too kind. Thomas was big, slow to speak-a quiet and solemn youth. Even Father Albert was inclined to think him rather dull.
No one knew about Thomas' amazing memory, or that he knew most of the Bible by heart, or that no subject was difficult for him.
One day Thomas decided to amuse himself by writing a paper on a really hard problem in Theology. Then somehow, after writing it, he lost it.
A few days later the paper turned up on Father Albert's desk. Father Albert read it, then called Thomas to his cell.
`Brother Thomas;' he asked, as the student entered the room, "did you write this?"
This book describes what happened next, plus the other events in Thomas' remarkable life. It tells how his mother fought against his vocation, how his brothers kidnapped him and put him in a tower, how his sisters helped him, and how angels brought him some-thing from Heaven.
All in all, this book shows how Thomas "The Dumb Ox" came to be the Patron of Catholic Schools and the greatest teacher ever in the history of the Catholic Church.
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Feast Day:
Roman Rite Calendar - 01/28
Tridentine Calendar - 01/28
Patron Of:
Theologians, Universities, Clear Weather, Pencil Makers, Philosophers, Publishers, Scholars, Schools, Students, Against Storms, Apologists, Booksellers, Catholic Universities, Chastity, Against Lightning
- Also known as
-
Angelic Doctor;
Doctor Angelicus;
Doctor Communis;
Great Synthesizer;
The Dumb Ox;
The Universal Teacher
Profile
Son of the Count of Aquino, born in the family castle in Lombardy near Naples. Educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, and at the University of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244. His noble family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to keep him out of sight, and deprogram him, but he rejoined his order in 1245.
He studied in Paris from 1245-1248 under Saint Albert the Great, then accompanied Albertus to Cologne. Ordained in 1250, then returned to Paris to teach. Taught theology at University of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle and Lombard's Sentences, and some bible-related works, usually by dictating to secretaries. He won his doctorate, and taught in several Italian cities. Recalled by king and university to Paris in 1269, then recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on the Summa Theologica.
On 6 December 1273 he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons, overweight and with his health broken by overwork.
His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church ever since. They systematized her great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship methods with the truth of Christianity. Pope Leo VIII commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. He was proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1567.
Born
c.1225 at Roccasecca, Aquino, Naples, Italy
Died
7 March 1274 at Fossanuova near Terracina of apparent natural causes; relics interred at Saint-Servin, Toulouse, France; relics translated to the Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse on 22 October 1974
Canonized
1323
All information used with permission of the Patron Saint Index.
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