ArchbishopLefebvre.com
Links
  • Archbishop Lefebvre
    • Biography of Archbishop Lefebvre
    • Who is he?
    • In his own words
  • Sermons
    • Sunday Sermons
  • Letters
    • Archbishop Lefebvre >
      • To Friends and Benefactors
      • Other Letters
    • Bishop Williamson >
      • Friends and Benefactors
      • Eleison Comments >
        • Italiano
        • Espanol
      • To SSPX Priests
  • Blog
  • Books
    • E-Books
    • Free Catholic Books
    • Archbishop Lefebvre
    • Bibles
    • Blessed Sacrament
    • Children Books
    • Childrens Saints
    • DVDs
    • Hell
    • Purgatory
    • Our Lady
    • Sacred Heart
    • Missals
    • Missale Romanum
    • Summa Theologica
    • Saints
  • Catholic Faith
    • Catechisms
    • Catholic Art
    • Chant
    • Dogmas of the Catholic Church
    • Encyclicals
    • Sermons
    • History >
      • HughesVol1index
    • Liturgy
    • Sacraments
    • Prayers >
      • Blessings
    • Way of the Cross
  • SSPX Crisis
    • sspx Archbishop Lefebvre
    • monks nuns
    • SSPX Bishop Fellay
    • SSPX Bishop Tissier
    • ex-sspx Bishop Williamson
    • ex-sspx chazal
    • sspx couture
    • sspx fox
    • ex-sspx fuchs
    • ex-sspx girouard
    • ex-sspx hewko
    • sspx laisney
    • sspx ockerse
    • ex-sspx pfeiffer
    • sspx themann
    • Fr. Ringrose
  • Links
    • Other Sites
    • Donate
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • You Tube
  • TradCat Items
    • Beeswax Candles
    • Chapel Veils
    • Prayer Cards - Our Lady
    • Prayer Cards - Espanol
    • Protected Scapulars
    • Scapulars
    • Unbreakable Rosaries
  • Crisis in Church
    • Declaration of the 2006 Chapter (SSPX)
    • Fr Hewko to SSPX Superiors
    • History of the Archbishop and Rome
    • Vatican II more important than Nicea!
    • The Archbishop and Religious Liberty
    • The right to resist an abuse of power
    • How Are Catholics To Respond To The Present Crisis

Saint for Today - St Thomas Aquinas

3/7/2014

 
Picture
That splendid adornment of the Christian world and light of the Church, blessed Thomas Aquinas, was the son of Landulph, Earl of Aquino, and Theodora of Naples, his wife, being nobly descended on both sides, and even as an infant gave token of the love which he afterwards bore to the Mother of God.  He found a little bit of paper upon which was written the Angelic Salutation, and held it firm in his hand in spite of the efforts of his wet-nurse; his mother took it away by force, but he cried and stretched out for it, and when she gave it back to him, he swallowed it.  When he was only four years old, he was given into the keeping of the Benedictine monks of Monte Cassino.  He was thence sent to Naples to study, and there, while very young, entered the Order of Friars Preachers.  This displeased his mother and brothers, and he left Naples for Paris.  When he was on his journey his brothers met him, and carried him by force to the castle of Monte San Giovanni, where they imprisoned him in the keep.  Here they used every means to break him of his intention, and at last brought a woman into his room to try to overcome his purity.  The youth drove her out with a fire-brand.  When he was alone he knelt down before the figure of the Cross, and there he fell asleep.  As he slept, it seemed to him that angels came and girded his loins: and from this time he never felt the least sexual inclination.  His sisters came to the castle to beseech him to give up his purpose of leaving the world, but he so worked on them by his godly exhortations, that both of them ever after set no value on earthly things, and busied themselves rather with heavenly.

Being let down from a window, Thomas escaped out of the castle of Monte San Giovanni, and returned to Naples.  Thence he went first to Rome, and then to Paris, in company of Brother John the German, then Master-General of the Friars Preachers.  At Paris he studied Philosophy and Theology under Albert the Great Doctor.  At the age of twenty-five years he took the degree of Master, and gave public disquisitions on the Philosophers and Theologians with great distinction.  He never set himself to read or write till he had first prayed, and when he was about to take in hand a hard passage of the Holy Scriptures, he fasted also.  Hence he was wont to say to Brother Reginald his comrade, that whatever he knew, he had learnt, not to much from his own labour and study, as from the inspiration of God.  At Naples he was once kneeling in very earnest prayer before an image of Christ Crucified, when he head a voice which said: Thomas, thou hast written well of me.  What reward wilt thou that I give thee?  He answered: None other, Lord, but thyself.  He studied most carefully the works of the Fathers, and there was no kind of author in which he was not well read.  His own writings are so wonderful, both because of their number, their variety, and the clearness of his explanations of hard things, that his rich and pure teaching, marvellously consonant with revealed truth, is an admirable antidote for the errors of all times.

The Supreme Pontiff Urban IV sent for him to Rome, and at his command he composed the Church Office for the feast of Corpus Christi.  The Pope could not persuade him to accept any dignity.  Pope Clement IV also offered him the Archbishoprick of Naples, but he refused it.  He did not neglect the preaching of the Word of God.  Once while he was giving a course of sermons in the Basilica of St. Peter, during the Octave of Easter, a woman who had an issue of blood was healed by touching the hem of his garment.  He was sent by blessed Gregory X to the Council of Lyons, but fell sick on his way at the Abbey of Fossanova, and there during his illness he made an exposition of the Song of Songs.  There he died on the 7th day of March, in the year of salvation 1274, aged fifty years.  He was distinguished for miracles even after his death, and on proof of these Pope John XXII added his name to those of the Saints in the year 1323.  His body was afterwards carried to Toulouse by command of blessed Urban V.  He has been compared to an angel, both on account of his innocency and of his intellectual power, and has hence been deservedly termed the Angelic Doctor.  The use of which title as applied to him was approved by the authority of holy Pius V.  Leo XIII, cheerfully agreeing to the prayers and wishes of nearly all the bishops of the Catholic world, and in conformity with a vote of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, by his Apostolic letters declared and recognized Thomas Aquinas as the patron in heaven of all Catholic schools, as an antidote to the plague of so many false systems, especially of philosophy, for the increase of scientific knowledge, and for the common good of all mankind.

Picture
The Triumph of St. Thomas, in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa MarĂ­a Novella, Florence, Italy
Help support the continuation of this Blog


Comments are closed.


    archbishop lefebvre
    Click to see more

    Enter your email address for daily posts:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Apologetics
    Archbishop Lefebvre
    Bishop Williamson
    Blessed Sacrament
    Catechism
    Catholic History
    Chalk Talks
    Chastisement
    Devotions
    Easter
    Eleison Comments
    Eleison Comments
    Eleison Comments Italian
    Encyclicals
    Espanol Eleison Comments
    Families
    Fatima
    Feast Days
    For Fathers (Dads)
    For Moms
    Fortitude
    Holy Ghost
    Holy Name
    Holy Souls
    Holy Week
    Home Schooling
    Lent
    Liberalism
    Litanies
    Liturgy
    Marriage
    Martyrology
    Martyrs
    Mass
    Meditations Of Abl
    Modesty
    News
    New World Order
    Obedience
    Our Lady
    Our Lady Of Quito
    Our Lord
    Pentecost
    Pioneer Priests
    Prayers
    Sacramentals
    Sacraments
    Sacred Heart
    Saint Of The Day
    Saints For April
    Saints For August
    Saints For December
    Saints For February
    Saints For January
    Saints For July
    Saints For June
    Saints For March
    Saints For May
    Saints For November
    Saints For October
    Saints For September
    Scandal
    Scapular
    Sermons
    Sspx
    St Benedict
    St Joseph
    St Michael
    St Michael
    Sundays Of The Year
    Temptations
    The Church
    The Last Things
    The Mass
    The Pope
    The Rosary
    The Saints
    The Virtues
    Tradcat Comments
    Truth Society

    Picture
    Click to see inside the store
    Picture
    k d
    Counter Site
    While Archbishop Lefebvre Blog is provided free of charge, there are administrative and technical costs associated with making it available to subscribers worldwide and with operating this site. Contributions to offset these costs are appreciated, and may be made via the button below

    Archbishop Lefebvre

    Promote Your Page Too
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.