LIFE Thomas Aquinas an Italian Philosopher and monk also known as Thomas of Aquino or Aquin, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor

Communis, or Doctor Universalis was born in the Castle of Roccasecca, near Auino, Italy at around 1224 to 1225 BC. He was the seventh child ofCount Landulf, a relative of Frederick II, Emperor of Sicily and Countess Theadora of Theate. In 1230 at the age of five, his parents presented him as an oblate to the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassion (he was offered up for the religious life). In 1239, the conditions became dangerous, when the Pope and Frederick II had a quarrel, and Aquinas returned to his parent's home for a couple of months. Then, he went to study liberal arts at the University of Naples. His father died at Christmas time in 1243, and Thomas joined the Dominican Order at Naples. His family was very displeased at this choice, and a month later while he was traveling with the Dominican General, his brothers kidnapped him, and brought him home. He was held captive for a year, and then his brothers let him go, and he traveled back to Paris to continue his studies as a novice. In 1248, he went with the famous Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus, then the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James in Paris (Albert the Great). Albert valued the many writings of Aristotle and passed them on to Aquinas. Aquinas was very large, physically, and quiet. Many of the other students called him "the dumb ox" but his professor exclaimed that one day the entire world would be listening to the bellowing of this "dumb ox" believing to Thomas bizarre ideas. In 1251, Aquinas was ordained a priest at Cologne, and he went to Paris to continue his studies. In the spring of 1256, he received his licentiate in theology and became a master of theology, and became educator at the University of Paris. From 1256 to 1259, Aquinas served as regent master of theology at Paris. In 1259 he was appointed Preacher General in Italy. Thomas wrote numerous works, including:Questiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth), a collection of twenty-nine disputed questions on aspects of faith and the human condition prepared for the public university debates he presided over on Lent and Advent; Quaestiones quodlibetales(Quodlibetal Questions), a collection of his responses to questions posed to him by the academic audience; and both Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate (Commentary on Boethius's De trinitate) and Expositio super librum Boethii De hebdomadibus (Commentary on Boethius's De hebdomadibus), commentaries on the works of 6th century philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. By the end of his regency, Thomas was working on one of his most famous works, Summa contra Gentiles. Years thereafter, he returned to Naples and came to Orvieto where he became also a lecturer and completed his works entitled Summa contra Gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea (The Golden Chain). 1265, he was sent to Rome to serve as Regent Master.

In November of 1268, he returned to the University of Paris. It was in Rome that Thomas began his most famous work, Summa Theologica the relationship of God and man and wrote a variety of other works like his unfinished Compendium Theologiae and Responsio ad fr. Ioannem Vercellensem de articulis 108 sumptis ex opere Petri de Tarentasia (Reply to Brother John of Vercelli Regarding 108 Articles Drawn from the Work of Peter of Tarentaise). In his position as head of the studium, conducted a series of important disputations on the power of God, which he compiled into his De potentia Classes were suspended in early 1272, and in the spring of 1272 he returned to Naples to start a Dominican house of studies which also starts the rise of "Averroism" or "radical Aristotelianism" in the universities. . In December of 1273, he had an experience in church, in which he says that during mass he heard Christ speak to him and felt that all he had written was insignificant, and he ceased writing. In 1274, Pope Gregory X summoned him to the Council of Lyons in France, and on the way he fell ill, and stopped at his sister's house and was nursed by them. He died in a Cistercian monastery at Fossanuova on March 7, 1274. Exactly three years after his death the Bishop of Paris condemned 219 propositions, including Aquinas's. In 1278, a General Chapter of Dominicans upheld Aquinas's views. On July 18, 1323 Pope John XXII at Avignon canonized Aquinas. Soon after, the Archbishop of Paris revoked the condemnation of Aquinas's teachings.