St thomas aquinas biography summary examples

The Church has told us countless times to go to St. Thomas for guidance in matters of philosophy and theology. Over the centuries this authoritative counsel has been a source of motivation for countless schools and seminaries, teachers and scholars.

But just who was this saint, what were the main lines of his life, and what are the characteristics of his major works? Such questions are ever more relevant as fewer know their answers. That is the reason for the following all-too-brief account.

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The seventh son of a noble family, Thomas was born in 1225 at Roccasecca in Italy, near Aquino, not far from the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, where as a boy he received instruction in liberal arts, literature, and catechism.

At the age of 14, Thomas commenced his undergraduate studies at the University of Naples, where newly-discovered works of Aristotle were studied more eagerly and freely than was the c