MARCH 7. SAINT THOMAS OF AQUIN, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH. THE Saint we are to honour to-day, is one of the sublimest and most lucid interpreters of Divine Truth. He rose up in the Church many centuries after the Apostolic Age, nay, long after the four great Latin Doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. The Church, the ever young and joyful Mother, is justly proud of her Thomas, and has honoured him with the splendid title of The Angelical Doctor, on account of the extraordinary gift of understanding wherewith God had blessed him; just as his co-temporary and friend, St. Bonaventure, has been called the Seraphic Doctor, on account of the wonderful unction which abounds in the writings of this worthy disciple of St. Francis. Thomas of Aquin is an honour to mankind, for perhaps there never existed a man whose intellect surpassed his. He is one of the brightest ornaments of the Church, for not one of her Doctors has equalled him in the clearness and precision wherewith he has explained her doctrines. He received the thanks of Christ himself, for having well written of him and his mysteries. How welcome ought not this Feast of such a Saint to be to us during this Season of the Year, when our main study is our return and conversion to God? What greater blessing could we have than the coming to know this God? Has not our ignorance of God, and his claims, and his perfections, been the greatest misery of our past lives? Here we have a Saint whose prayers are most efficacious in procuring for us that knowledge, which is unspotted, and converteth souls, and giveth wisdom to little ones, and gladdeneth the heart, and enlighteneth the eyes.1 Happy we if this spiritual wisdom be granted us! We shall then see the vanity of everything that is not eternal, the righteousness of the divine commandments, the malice of sin, and the infinite goodness wherewith God treats us when we repent. Let us learn from the Church the claims of the Angelical Doctor to our admiration and confidence. When he was five years old, he was sent to Monte Cassino, that he might receive from the Benedictine Monks his first training. Thence he was sent to Naples, where he went through a course of studies, and, young as he was, joined the Order of Friars Preachers. This step caused great displeasure to his mother and brothers, and it was therefore deemed advisable to send him to Paris. He was waylaid by his brothers, who seized him, and imprisoned him in the castle of Saint John. After having made several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to abandon the Inde Thomas, Landulpho comite Aquinate, et Theodora Neapolitana, nobilibus parentibus natus, quintum annum agens, Monachis sancti Benedicti Casinatibus custodiendus traditur. Neapolim studiorum causa missus, jam adolescens Fratrum Prædicatorum Ordinem suscepit. Sed matre ac fratribus id indigne ferentibus, Lutetiam Parisiorum mittitur. Quem fratres in itinere per vim raptum in arcem castri Sancti Joannis perducunt, ubi varie exagitatus, ut sanctum propositum mutaret, mulierem etiam, quæ ad labefactandam ejus constantiam introducta fuerat, titione fugavit. Mox beatus juvenis flexis genibus ante signum crucis orans, ibique somno 1 Ps. xviii. 8, 9. correptus, per quietem sentire visus est, sibi ab Angelis constringi lumbos; quo ex tempore omni postea libidinis sensu caruit. Sororibus, quæ ut eum a pio consilio removerent, in castrum venerant, persuasit, ut contemptis curis sæcularibus, ad exercitationem coelestis vitæ se conferrent. Emissus e castro per fenestram, Neapolim reducitur. Unde Romam, postea Parisium a fratre Joanne Teutonico, Ordinis Prædicatorum generali Magistro, ductus, Alberto Magno doctore philosophiæ ac theologiæ operam dedit: viginti quinque annos natus, Magister est appellatus, publiceque philosophos ac theologos summa cum laude est interpretatus. Nunquam se lectioni aut scriptioni dedit, nisi post orationem. In difficultatibus locorum sacræ Scripturæ, ad orationem jejunium adhibebat. Quin etiam sodali suo fratri Reginaldo dicere solebat, quidquid sciret, non tam studio aut labore suo peperisse, quam divinitus traditum accepisse. Neapoli, cum ad holy life he had chosen, they assailed his purity, by sending to him a wicked woman: but he drove her from his chamber with a fire-brand. The young saint then threw himself on his knees before a crucifix. Having prayed some time, he fell asleep, and it seemed to him that two Angels approached to him, and tightly girded his loins. From that time forward, he never suffered the slightest feeling against purity. His sisters, also, had come to the castle, and tried to make him change his mind; but he, on the contrary, persuaded them to despise the world, and devote themselves to the exercise of a holy life. It was contrived that he should escape through a window of the castle, and return to Naples. He was thence taken by John the Teutonic, the general of the Dominican Order, first to Rome, and then to Paris, in which latter city he was taught philosophy and theology by Albert the Great. At the age of twenty-five, he received the title of Doctor, and explained in the public schools, and in a manner that made him the object of universal admiration, the writings of philosophers and theologians. He always applied himself to prayer, before reading or writing anything. When he met with any difficult passage in the Sacred Scriptures, he both fasted and prayed. He used often to say to his companion, Brother Reginald, that if he knew anything, it was more a gift from God, than the fruit of his own study and labour. One day, when at Naples, as he was praying, with more than his usual fervour, before a crucifix, he heard these words: "Well hast thou written of "me, Thomas! What reward "wouldst thou have me give "thee?" He answered: "None other, Lord, but thyself." 66 There was not a book which he had not most carefully read. His favourite spiritual book was the Conferences of the Fathers. He was most zealous in preaching the Word of God. On one occasion, during Easter Week, as he was preaching in the Church of St. Peter, a woman touched the hem of his habit, and was cured of an issue of blood. His writings are so extraordinary, not only for their number and their variety, but also for their clearness in the explaining difficult points of doctrine, that he has received the title of Angelical Doctor. He was invited to Rome by Pope Urban the Fourth, but nothing could induce him to accept the honours which were offered him. He refused the Archbishopric of Naples, which Pope Clement the Fourth begged him to accept. He was sent by Gregory the Tenth to the Council of Lyons; but having got as far as Fossa Nova, he fell sick, and was received as a guest in the Monastery of that place, and wrote a commentary on the imaginem crucifixi vehementius oraret, hanc vocem audivit : Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercedem accipies? Cui ille: Non aliam, Domine nisi teipsum. Nullum fuit scriptorum genus in quibus non esset diligentissime versatus. Collationes Patrum assidue pervolutabat, nec tamen a prædicatione divini verbi desistebat. Quod cum faceret per Octavam Paschæ in Basilica Sancti Petri, mulierem quæ ejus fimbriam tetigerat, a fluxu sanguinis liberavit. Scripta ejus et multitudine, et varietate, et facilitate explicandi res difficiles, adeo excellunt, ut ob eam causam etiam nomen Doctoris Angelici jure sit adeptus. Ab Urbano Quarto Romam vocatus, adduci non potuit ut honores acciperet. Archiepiscopatum Neapolitanum, etiam deferente Clemente Quarto Pontifice, recusavit. Missus a Gregorio Decimo ad Concilium Lugdunense, in monasterio Fossæ Novæ in morbum incidit, ubi, ægrotus, Cantica canticorum explanavit. Ibidem obiit quinquagenarius, anno salutis millesimo ducentesimo septuagesimo quarto, Nonis Martii. Miraculis et vivus et mortuus floruit. A Joanne Vigesimo secundo in Sanctorum numerum relatus est, anno millesimo trecentesimo vigesimo tertio: cujus corpus postea, Urbano Quinto summo Pontifice, Tolosam translatum est. Canticle of Canticles. There he died, in the fiftieth year of his age, in the year of our Lord 1274, on the Nones of March (March 7th). His sanctity was made manifest by miracles, both before and after his death. He was canonised by John the Twenty-second, in the year 1323. His body was translated to Toulouse, during the Pontificate of Urban the Fifth. The Dominican Order, of which St. Thomas is one of the grandest ornaments, has inserted the three following Hymns in its Liturgy of his Feast. Exsultet mentis jubilo Laudans turba fidelium, Errorum pulso nubilo Per novi solis radium. HYMN. Thomas in mundi ves pere, De cujus fonte luminis, Fulgens doctrinæ radiis, Clarus vitæ munditia, Splendens miris prodigiis. Dat toto mundo gaudia. Laus Patri sit, ac Genito, Simulque Sancto Flamini, Let the assembly of the Faithful exult in spiritual joy, and give praise to God, who has made a new sun to shine in our world, and disperse the clouds of error. It was in the evening of the world that Thomas shed his treasures of heavenly light. Heaven had enriched him with gifts of virtue and wisdom: From this fountain of light we have derived a brighter knowledge of the Word, the understanding of the Divine Scriptures, and the rules of truth. The effulgent rays of his wisdom, the light of his spotless life, and the splendour of his miracles, have filled the universe with joy. Praise, then, be to the Father, and to the Son, and to |