Early Formative Years
(1224/5-1252)
(1224/5-1252)
This is the name of the family castle in southern Italy, halfway between Rome and Naples, where St. Thomas was born.
What is Roccasecca?
To complete his theological studies, Thomas composed a commentary on this landmark theological work.
What is the Sentences of Peter Lombard?
A fruit of Thomas's time in Orvieto, this important work is his best known.
What is the Summa contra gentiles?
Thomas moved to Rome in 1265 for this purpose.
What is establishing an independent house of studies?
When he returned to Rome, Thomas wrote the second part of the Summa theologiae, which took this long.
What are eighteen months?
As a young boy, Thomas was sent by his family to be formed as a monk at this Benedictine abbey.
What is Monte Cassino?
One of the fundamental tasks of Thomas's life as a professor, this Latin word meant teaching by commenting on Scripture.
What is legere, "to read"?
Teaching his Dominican brothers in Orvieto inspired this, Thomas's later great work.
What is the Summa theologiae?
This is the title of the commentary on the four Gospels that Thomas wrote at the request of Pope Urban IV.
What is the Golden Chain?
This is the method Thomas used to get his ideas on paper so quickly.
What is dictation?
While studying in Naples as a teenager, Thomas became familiar with Averroës and Maimonides, scholars of these two non-Christian religions.
What are Islam and Judaism?
Another of Thomas's fundamental tasks as a professor of Theology, this Latin term means to respond to objections on a given theme.
What is disputare, "to dispute"?
Thomas wrote the Summa theologiae as a more cohesive replacement for these educational materials.
What are the moral manuals?
In addition to the Summa theologiae, Thomas wrote this many minor works at the request of others while in Rome.
What are 26?
Around this day in 1273, in a letter to a friend, Thomas wrote, "I cannot. Everything I have written seems like so much straw in comparison to what I have seen."
What is the Feast of St. Nicholas (December 6)?
In the spring of 1244, Thomas became a friar in this mendicant order.
What is the Order of Preachers or the Dominicans?
This final task of Thomas's life as a professor meant to explain Scripture to a broader audience beyond the University.
What is praedicare, "to preach"?
The Summa contra gentiles relies on human reason alone to point to the existence of this theological figure.
Who is God?
Thomas also write twelve commentaries on the thought of this major philospher.
Who is Aristotle?
Thomas Aquinas died here on March 7, 1274.
What is the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova?
As an advanced student in Paris, Thomas studied the works of these two philosphers.
Who are Aristotle and Pseudo-Dionysius?
While teaching, Thomas's disputations on any particular topic were broken up into these smaller units of argumentation.
What are articles?
This one of Thomas's two major works is considered to be very personal and confessional
What is the Summa contra gentiles?
All of Thomas's other scholarship and writing was used as preparation and background information for this great work.
What is the Summa theologiae?
Pope Pius V bestowed this recognition on St. Thomas in 1567.
What is being named a Doctor of the Church?