CYCLOPS
"and S. Thomas Aquinas" (U12.1702)
S. Thomas Aquina (1225 - 1274) was the son of the Count of Aquino, born in the family castle in Lombardy (Italy). He was educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, and at the U of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244. His noble family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to dissuade him, but he rejoined his order in 1245. He studied in Paris (1245 - 1248) under S. Albert the Great. Ordained in 1250, he returned to Paris to teach theology at U of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle, and bible-related works. He won his doctorate, and taught in France and Italy while writing the Summa Theologica. In 1273 he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were just straw in the wind. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons. Represented usually as a teacher with pagan philosophers at his feet, sometimes with chalice, monstrance, ox, or star. Feast January 28.
