The Angelic Doctor
This 13th-century Dominican earned the title Doctor Angelicus for the clarity, depth, and harmony of his theological reasoning.
St. Thomas Aquinas
This 19th-century Italian priest became widely known as “Don Bosco,” dedicating his life to the spiritual and practical care of poor and working-class boys.
St. John Bosco
This feast, as it is known on current liturgical calendars, commemorates Mary and Joseph bringing the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Presentation of the Lord
This region of Europe, including modern-day Denmark and Sweden, was the focus of a 9th-century missionary effort during the Viking Age.
Scandinavia
The Gospel consists of these famous blessings that open the Sermon on the Mount.
The Beatitudes
Structured as a series of objections, replies, and conclusions, this unfinished theological synthesis remains one of the most influential works in Western Christianity.
Summa Theologiae
In Turin, Bosco gathered boys not primarily through a school or parish structure, but through this flexible pastoral model that blended worship, recreation, and mentorship.
Oratory
This righteous and devout man, guided by the Holy Spirit, recognized the Messiah in the child Jesus and took him into his arms.
Simeon
The people among whom early missionaries worked in Denmark and Sweden during the 9th century are commonly known by this collective name.
Vikings
In the second reading, Paul reminds the Church that God chose what is “foolish” and “weak” in the world—so no one may do this “before God.”
Boast
Aquinas famously baptized the philosophy of this ancient Greek thinker, arguing that truth discovered by reason cannot contradict divine revelation.
Aristotle
Bosco believed young people were best formed not through fear or punishment, but through personal relationships marked by trust, presence, and this virtue.
Love
Simeon’s canticle, prayed nightly in the Liturgy of the Hours, is known by this Latin title.
Nunc Dimittis
St. Ansgar operated out of this German city, which became an early base for missionary work toward northern Europe.
Hamburg
According to the first reading, those who survive as God’s remnant are not the powerful, but the “humble and lowly,” pointing to this virtue.
Humility
Motion, efficient causation, contingency, gradation, and final causality form five arguments Aquinas presents to establish this preliminary metaphysical claim.
The existence of God
Bosco founded this religious congregation, named for St. Francis de Sales, to continue his mission of education and evangelization of youth.
Salesians of Don Bosco
The Gospel for this feast cites this Old Testament prophecy: “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”
Malachi
In addition to being a missionary, St. Ansgar held this office in the Church, giving him authority to oversee clergy and establish churches in northern Germany and other regions to the north.
Bishop
In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ blessings, this phrase describes poverty not as an external condition, but as an interior one.
"Poor in spirit"
After a mystical experience near the end of his life, Aquinas said that all he had written seemed like this in comparison to what had been revealed to him.
Straw
Throughout his life, Bosco reported vivid dreams that shaped his mission and teaching, including one in which wild animals were transformed into lambs by this guiding influence.
Jesus Christ
This ancient symbol, central to the feast’s liturgy and procession, reflects Simeon’s words that Christ would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”
Candles
St. Ansgar is commemorated in the Church’s liturgical calendar on this date each year, which is probably more famous for the Blessing of Throats.
February 3rd
In the first reading, this prophet calls the humble to “seek the LORD… seek justice… seek humility,” promising that a lowly remnant will remain.
Zephaniah