Christ:

“You have written well of Me, Thomas;
what reward do you wish for your labors?”

Thomas: “Nothing less than Yow, O Lordl”

Tile
INTERIOR LIFE
of St. THOMAS
AQUINAS
Presented Prom His Works and ike
Acts of His Canonization Process

By DR. MARTIN GRABMANN, prothonotary
APOSTOLIC, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT THE
university of Munich. Translated by
NICHOLAS ASHENBRENER, O.P., Dominican
HOUSE OF STUDIES, RIVER FOREST, ILLINOIS
- Cf
IO"**

THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY
MILWAUKEE : : f <

SG

Nihil obstat: Fr. J. S. Considine, O.P., S.T.M.
Fr. J. W. Curran, O.P., B.S.T., S.T.D.
Imprimi potest: Fr. Eduardus L. Hughes, O.P., S.T.Lr.
Chicagiensi, Ill., die 15a Aprilis, 1951
Nihil obstat: John A. Schulien, S.T.D., censor librorum
Imprimatur : Moyses E. Kiley, ArchiepiScopus Milwaukiensis
die ra Maii, 1951

W8THBT6·

Copybight, 1951, Nicholas Ashenbbeneb, O.P.
Maph IK.T3HE JJnited States of America

-jWtW.liWn
WHTUTb

287408

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

WHILE preparing the translation o£ this book during
the early days of 1949, news reached me of the sudden death
■x of its author, the late Msgr. Martin Grabmann. The passing
of such a champion of truth is indeed a great loss to Thomistic
scholarship.
His staggering number of publications, begun as early
as 1898, clearly manifested a profound student and ardent
admirer of the Angelic Doctor. Not only did he grasp the
precise thought of St. Thomas, but he very clearly under­
stood the whole historical background of the Middle Ages
which helped to fashion the Prince of Theologians. Because
of his extensive knowledge, the name of Dr. Martin Grab­
mann today represents a foremost authority on the life, works,
and interpretation of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Practically all of Dr. Grabmann’s writings lie hidden in
some foreign language. Many of them would be of inestim­
able profit to the English-speaking public. This particular
work was selected in preference to his many other works for
y* good reasons. Today, with the ever increasing desire for the
sound doctrine of St. Thomas, there is a dire need for a
work in English on the spiritual life of this learned Doctor.
Many recent writers have done beautiful sketches of Thomas
v the Doctor; but few, if any, have succeeded as Grabmann has
$ in portraying Thomas the Saint.
V·

Translator’s Preface

This little work is also singular in its revelation of the
sanctity and holiness of the author’s priestly soul. And so it
becomes especially fitting that this translation be dedicated
to him in memory of his love for God and truth. It is a work
which always remained close to his heart. Such can be
evidenced in the brief eulogy penned by his close friend,
the editor of Divus Thomas, G. M. Hâfele, O.P.* The last
paragraph reads:

He CGrabmann) set his heart for immortality . . . princi­
pally on one little book: Das Seelenlében des heiligen Thomas
von Aquin. After the first two editions were sold out, he "waited
until the last days of his life to see its reappearance. . . . To­
day we place this work upon his freshly-dug grave not only
as a modest token of our grateful love and loyalty for our
paternal friend, but also as an eloquent testimony of how
deeply he penetrated into the thought and the inner life of
the Angelic Doctor, and of how well he realized and fulfilled
the request of the Church in its prayer for the' Feast of St.
Thomas Aquinas: “both clearly to understand the things be
taught, and faithfully to imitate what he did.”
Within this translator’s preface, I am also including some
thoughts which the author has placed in his brief preface.
This will eliminate the necessity of having two prefaces to
this short work. Besides, some of Dr. Grabmann’s reflections
would have little or no interest for an English-speaking
audience.
This work, as the author points out, originated from lectures
which he delivered in various German cities on die occasion
of the sixth centennial of St. Thomas’ canonization, celebrated
in 1923. It appeared in two editions published by the Thea* G. M. Hâfele, OJ?., ‘Trotonotar Dr. Martin Grabmann. In Piam
Memoriam," Divus Thomas, Mârz, 1949, Paulus-Druckerie, Freiburg in
det Schweiz.

i
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Translator's Preface

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vii

tinerverïag. Sometime after all available copies had been
exhausted, the Paulusverlag took up the work, had it brought
up to date by its author, and republished it in 1949. The
English translation has been made from this third and
enlarged revision.
Throughout the translation I have scrupulously tried to
remain as close as possible to the original, knowing that it
breathed the spirit of peace and quiet of a soul similar to
St. Thomas. The only changes that have been introduced
have been those of grammar, or in peculiar constructions
where the English version would of necessity differ from the
German. All quotations have been rechecked, and, when
more suited, translated from the original. All omissions within
quotations have been clearly indicated wherever it seemed
the German did not include some thought or phrase. Much
of the Latin phraseology has been put into English so as to
make the work more accessible to an English-speaking
audience. Wherever the Latin had to be retained, its meaning can easily be discerned from either the context or the
translation which immediately follows. Since the footnotes,
in large part, only indicate the sources, and these usually
in some foreign language, they have been relegated to an
appendix in the back of the book. Thus the work should
become more presentable and readable in its new
English garb.
This book is neither a purely devotional nor a strictly
scientific treatment of the interior life of St. Thomas. Rather,
it is a happy combination of the two, as only a man like
Dr. Grabmann, with his deep insight and extensive experience, can present it. The work is intended, as the author
points out, to help acquaint priests, students of theology,
and the laity interested in St. Thomas, with the religious

I
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11

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viii

,

Translator's Preface

personality and character of the Angelic Doctor. Those who * :
are intimately acquainted with Thomas should profit hy
i
seeing more clearly the true source of Thomas’ knowledge.
t
Those who have heard or read little of Thomas should profit
ΐ
• in discovering the loving soul of this master of Catholic
drought. All, then, will understand how and why Thomas
the Saint learned more from’ the feet of the Crucified than
from the innumerable books he read. And they will be
convinced that sanctity precedes science, that life precedes
knowledge, even in the scientific personality of St. Thomas
Aquinas.
In making this translation I am indebted to our Provincial, '
the Very Reverend Edward L. Hughes, O.P., for his
encouragement and permission to undertake this translation;
to Christopher Riesling, O.P., without whose generous
assistance this translation would never have been completed;
to Richard Buder, O.P., for his kind help in preparing the
English manuscript; and to all those who have aided in many
litde ways to make this much-needed work find its way into
the English language. May all, by immersing themselves into
this saindy soul, feel more drawn to the loving personality
and living thought of St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the
Church, Patron of Catholic Schools. This is the prayerful
hope both of the author and the translator.
Nicholas Ashenbrener, O.P.

Dominican House of Studies
River Forest, Illinois
Feast of St Thomas,
March 7, 1951

i

CONTENTS

f..

-i

Translator’s Preface .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Introduction

.

v'

.

I

Part I: Features of the Soul and Character of St.
Thomas From His Writings and the Acts of His
Canonization ...................................................................

5

Part II: Characteristics of the Interior Life of St.

Thomas

.

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17

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19

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Il

Charity.........................................................

Ill

Peace

/;.ΐ

i

< ■>. .
;■

£1
Ό

■·

i

i

Wisdom

35
·

5°

Part III: Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

67

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

■

Appendix .

.

.

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·

.

Index...................................................................

ix

79
89

α

INTRODUCTION

k—' OMETIME after the middle of the fourteenth century,
the Italian painter, Tommaso da Modena,1 adorned the
chapter room of San Niccolo, the Dominican convent at
Treviso, with frescoes of Dominican saints and scholars.
Here St. Thomas Aquinas is represented standing at the
lecturer’s chair in front of his desk. He holds a book in
his right hand, while his left hand rests upon a tiny church.
From a sun gleaming on his breast, stream rays of light which
fall upon and enter the church.
This representation of the most learned of the saints
and the most saintly of the learned, as Cardinal Bessarion has
called Aquinas, is also found in various other places. At
Viterbo, on a terra-cotta relief of Andrea della Robbia, the
saint holds a book in his left hand, and with his right hand
he sustains another small church. Rays of light shine on the
church from a sun set upon his breast. At both sides angels
bow in deepest awe. This same idea is brought out in
miniature on some manuscripts, as for instance upon one
originally written at St. Domenico’s in Fiesole, now at the
Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence.2
In this portrayal of St. Thomas I see a significant indication
of his providential influence within the Church and for the
Church over a period of more than 600 years. He is diffusing
rays of light upon the Church, the Church upon which he
in return depends — light rays of natural and supernatural
truth, rays of warmth for a life of Christian asceticism and

2

U

!

Introduction

mysticism, of supernatural love and perfection. A manuscript,
written not long after his death, truly sounds like a prophecy
when it says in sacred memory of Brother Thomas: "cujus
doctrina illuminatur sancta ecclesia—by whose doctrine Holy
Mother Church is illumined.”3
The rays of light with which St. Thomas illumines the
Church in these pictures emanate from a sun fixed upon
his breast. In truth, his tremendous influence throughout
centuries of Church history springs from his inner life: from
the sanctity and purity of his thought, love, and life. We
cannot understand the drought and influence of St. Thomas,
everywhere diffusing truth, unless we cast a glance into his
< inner life, into the very life of his soul.
On a fresco at Treviso, underneath the picture of the saint,
we read: "Fuit exemplar virtutum, virgo, eximius magister
in sacra theologia, in toto orbe famosus. Multa opera fecit et
in multis claruit miraculis—He was a model of virtues,
a virgin, a distinguished master in sacred theology, renowned
throughout the world. He wrote many works, and worked
many miracles.” Here the sanctity and spodess purity of his
life precede his scholarly greatness. And Pope Pius XI, in
his profound and well-received encyclical, Studiorum Ducem,
commemorating the sixth centenary of St. Thomas’ canoniza­
tion, begins with a most impressive description of his life
of virtue.*
The following pages are intended to be an analysis, in
a simple and plain manner, of his interior life, a sketch of
his soul and character. I am presenting this portrait precisely
as many years of heartfelt and intimate intellectual familiarity
with the work, personality, and thought of St. Thomas have
shown and revealed it to me.
If love, occasionally manifesting itself in some colorful

■’ i

.

Introduction

3

tinge, has perchance directed my hand in planning and
drawing this portrait, such is not the expression of a momen­
tary enthusiasm and mood which so often mars and tarnishes
the reality and impartiality of a representation. Whatever is
mentioned here concerning the greatness of St. Thomas, his
inner motives and nature, is not intended to be a panegyric.
It is rather simply the impression and expression of whatever
an exhaustive study of sources has revealed to me about this
great thinker, whom I have learned to love and venerate more
and more over the course of years as a holy, pure, and noble
personality. Or it arises from whatever glimmers through his
works, impersonal as they may seem, about his own interior,
personal individuality.
Biographers of St. Thomas have frequently sketched the
portrait of the soul and character of our saint. Touron has
done this most thoroughly and in greatest detail. He dedicated
to this purpose the whole fourth book of his huge biography
of St. Thomas, which he wrote from a comprehensive knowl­
edge of sources, as well as of Thomistic works.5 More recently,
enthusiastic and faithful students of St. Thomas have felt
their way into his interior life, giving us a description and
. appraisal of his intellectual and religious personality. The
centenary of the canonization of Aquinas, which occasioned
_
many valuable and far-reaching scientific works, partly
historical and partly speculative, strongly stimulated a
penetration into the interior life of this great theologian
and philosopher. Among the contributions called forth by
this jubilee we should mention the works from the pens of
the Dominicans: M. Gillet, H. Petitot, S. Ramirez, G. M.
Manser.* The excellent periodical, La Via Spirituelle, has
published a special section entitled "Saint Thomas Docteur
mystique."

1
4

. Introduction

, Two Dominicans, A. D. Sertillanges and J. Webert, have
sketched very impressive portraits of the scientific and reli­
gious greatness of St. Thomas. T. Deman, O.P., and the
Hollander, J. E. Kuiper, have described his sanctity. The
professor at the Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan,
Giulio Salvadore, whose process of beatification has been
introduced, has drawn a charming miniature of the inner
life of our saint. One reads J. Pieper’s book on St. Thomas
Aquinas with a great deal of satisfaction, for it is so
expressive of his interior life. Angelus Walz, O.P., has
embodied a chapter, "El Santo Dottore," into his excellent
biography of St. Thomas, based on a thorough knowledge of
sources and data, which presents the life of the Angelic
Doctor against the background of contemporary history.
I, too, have brought out the scholarly individuality of
Aquinas in my work on St. Thomas Aquinas, which has
been translated into numerous foreign languages, and now
has made its appearance in a seventh edition.7

Part I
FEATURES OF THE SOUL AND CHARACTER
OF ST. THOMAS FROM HIS WRITINGS AND
THE ACTS OF HIS CANONIZATION

T

HE acts of the canonization process and the writings of
the saint are the principal sources for our portrait of the
soul and character of St. Thomas.1 A number of testimonies,
handed down to us in the acts of the canonization process,
depict with great uniformity the foremost features of the
inner life and the whole personality of Aquinas.
These testimonies are valuable because either they come
from those who have personally known the saint, or they are
from correspondence between his intimate friends.2 Among
such friends were: first and foremost, Reginald of Pipemo, an
inseparable companion who knew all the secrets and the
inner experiences of the saint—the socius carissimus, as St.
Thomas calls him; John of Cajatia, another Dominican, who
was a student of the Angelic Doctor in Paris and Naples,
who had always been especially dose to him; William of
Tocco, one of the witnesses, who played a very active role
in the promotion of his canonization process, and wrote the
first Life of St. Thomas upon which the biographies of
Bernard Guido and Peter Calo largely depend.
These biographies of St. Thomas are not such living and
impressive portraits of a soul as we meet in Eadem’s graphic
life of St. Anselm of Canterbury or in St. Bonaventure’s
5

"-nnaiiiiiTMIIIff"·

6

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

biography of St. Francis. Even the writings of St. Thomas,
!
in their rigidly scientific arrangement and their abstract, i
theoretical nature, appear at first glance to offer very little, ..·!
if anything, for a sketch of his soul and character. The
i
scholastics of the twelfth century, an Anselm of Canterbury,,
a John of Salisbury, more or less reveal to us their thoughts,
wishes, and feelings through their correspondence. Among
the great scholastic thinkers who ascended to a leading public
position, such as Bonaventure, the General and great organizer
of the Franciscan Order, personal motives are naturally inter­
woven into their literary work. Even St. Albert the Great
purposely uses his personal experiences here and there in
his writings.
, From Thomas himself we have only one letter, in sub­
stance a scientific opinion, written to Abbot Bernard Aygleriüs
of Monte Cassino — the last work to come from the pen
of the saint’ Only at the beginning or end of his opuscula,
which he wrote at the request of his Dominican brethren and
of others seeking advice, do we find some personal turn which
offers a glimpse into the pure, noble, and gracious soul
of the saint
Concluding his opinion on the form of absolution, written
in accordance with the wish of his Master General, John of
Vercelli, St Thomas writes:
It has been the will of God that I should labor at your
command on the Feast of the Chair of Peter, writing this
work for the defense of the power given to Peter.4
Beginning another opusculum, Responsio de VI articulis
ad lectorum Bisuntinum, Thomas charitably writes:
To my dearest Brother in Christ, Gerard Bisuntinus, of the
Order of Friars Preachers, I, Brother Thomas Aquinas of the
same Order, send my greetings in fraternal charity. I have

-J'l

Features of the Soul and Character of St. Thomas

7

received your letters containing some articles, to which you
ask me to reply. And although I have been busy with many
things, nevertheless, lest I should fail the request of your
charity, I took care to answer you as soon as the opportunity
permitted.

The saint, entirely engrossed as he was in his many and
great labors, must have made sacrifices to answer such
questions. Yet, his cordial and sincere charity willingly
accepted these interruptions. At the close of this opusculum,
he asks Brother Gerard to remember him in his prayers:
These things, very dear Brother, occur to me at this time
in answer to the questions which you proposed. For this work,
if it pleases you, remember me in your prayers.
In the Responsio de articulis XXXVI ad lectorem Venetum*
Thomas answers in the same friendly and gracious manner
the questions of another one of his brethren:
Having read your letters, I found in them a great number
. of articles which your charity requested me to answer within
four days. And, although I have been very busy, I have put
aside for a time the things that I should do and have decided
to answer individually the questions which you proposed, so as
not to be lacking to the request of your charity.

Apparently the lector from Venice knew well the self­
sacrificing willingness of the saint, and therefore demanded
the answer to these thirty-six obscure and general questions
within four days. In the concluding words the saint tactfully
mentions this want of a clearer formulation:
These are the things, very dear Brother, which I write
more elaborately than you requested in response to the articles
which you sent. It is not possible to reply absolutely to these
opinions for they can be taken in different senses, especially
since you have not mentioned what may be objected against

8

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas
these articles. In such a case, a more absolute and certain
reply could have been given. May your charity endure, and
for this work, please remember me in your prayers.

I wonder whether many scholars, famous and overburdened
with work, would reply as charitably as Thomas did to the
obscure and incomplete requests of a beginner, who sought
answers for thirty-six questions within four days!
The saint’s devout and religious manner of thinking also
manifests itself in the personal remarks of his opuscula. Thé
opusculum, De substantiis separatis seu de angelorum natura,
dedicated to Reginald of Pipemo (ad fratrem Reginaldum
socium suum carissimum) has the following beautiful words
of introduction:

1

Since we cannot be present at the sacred solemnities of the
angels, we should not allow the time of devotion to pass in
idleness. But, rather, the time taken away from chanting the
office should be given over to the work of writing.

The saint here speaks of the regular choral office (solemnia
Angelorum') carried out in his Order according to a beautiful
liturgical rite. He wishes to occupy the time in which he
is unable to take part in the regular choral office with the
writing of a tract about the angels, one of his most profound
speculative treatises.
In the same friendly and charitable way, Thomas also
replied to persons outside his Order who came to him
seeking counsel and help. A duchess, most likely the Duchess
Adelheid of Brabant (1261-1267), came to die saint with
a number of questions concerning her duties of government.
He responded to these questions in an extensive work, De
Regimine Judaeorum* He prefaces the following personal
introduction to the factual discussion:

Features of the Soul and Character of St. Thomas

9

I have received the letters o£ Your Excellency (Excellentiae
Vestrae), from which I fully understand your pious solicitude
for the ruling of your subjects, and the devout love which you
have for the brethren of our Order. I give thanks to God who
has planted in your heart the seeds of such virtues. It has been
difficult for me to answer the articles which you requested in
your letter, both because of the labors which the duty of
lecturing requires, and because I would be pleased if you
would seek me advice of others more learned in these affairs.
In truth, since I thought it unbecoming to be found a negligent
helper, considering your solicitude, or ungrateful, considering
your esteem, I have taken care at present to reply to the articles
which you proposed, without, however, prejudice to a better
opinion.

The concluding words show the same modesty:

At this time it occurred to me, illustrious and pious Lady,
that these things should be written in reply to your questions.
In these matters I do not so force my own opinion upon you
that I do not urge you to hold that of a more learned man.

A noble lay friend, a Lord of Burgo, came to Thomas
with a question of moral theology concerning superstitious
games of chance. The saint readily instructs him in his De
Sortibus. The completely lovable character of the saint is
mirrored in the introduction:

Your charity has asked me to reply in writing about consider­
ations of games of chance. It is not proper that the requests,
which charity faithfully offers, be refused by a friend. So,
desiring to satisfy your petition and interrupting my labors of
study for a short time during the major vacation, I have
considered what must, according to my opinion, be written
of games of chance.

Thomas begins his commentary to the Perihermeneias with
the following dedication:

io

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

To the beloved Superior of Louvain, I, Brother Thomas
Aquinas, send greetings and an increase in true wisdom.
Moved by the consideration of your diligence, by which you
in your youth seek wisdom and not vanity, I have sought,
among the many pressing duties of my labors, to prepare a
commentary on the book of Aristotle called Perihermeneias,
which is filled with many obscurities. My intention is to offer
the advanced higher things, and yet not to refuse beginners
the means of acquiring proficiency. May your zeal, therefore,
receive the work of the present exposition. If you profit by it,
may you inspire me to yet greater efforts.
Let us now proceed to examine in the testimonies of his
canonization process the features of the soul and character
of St. Thomas. The writings of the saint will then help us
to understand these traits and to create a unified portrait.
The Dominican, James of Cajatia, has given his oath
to the following accounts:
I have known Brother Thomas to be a contemplative man
(hominem contemplativum), totally withdrawn from worldly .
tilings and drawn to divine things. He was very honest, pure,
and serious. Never did he seek special food, but was content
with whatever was placed before him, using it moderately.
Every day he celebrated Mass and heard another one. Then,
without delay, he devoted himself to prayer, study, and writing.
When asked where he had seen Thomas, James replied:

At Naples and Capua in the convents of the Friars
Preachers.’.
The testimony of the Dominican, Peter of St. Felix, is
more detailed. Under oath he gave the following description
of the life and conduct of St Thomas:

.

Brother Thomas was a man of great purity iri regard to self
as well as in regard to others, for he wished that others should
be as he himself was. He possessed an admirable humility and

Features of the Soul and Character of St. Thomas

11

patience so that he never saddened anybody by proud or in­
jurious words. He was, moreover, a man of profound coir
templation, who constantly either prayed, wrote, or studied.
Every day he celebrated Holy Mass and heard another. He
was totally removed from earthly affairs to things divine. Never
did he seek special food, but was satisfied with what was set
before him. Even at table he was often wrapt in contempla­
tion, so that someone could remove the food before him without
his knowing it. He also had very little concern about clothing.
Asked how he knew all this, Peter of St. Felix replied:

I myself have seen him, have been his student, and have
lived with him in the Order for one year. I have seen him
in his cell in the Convent at Naples, in the choir of the
church, and in the lecture-hall teaching and preaching.8

Conrad of Suess, an elderly priest of the Order of Preachers,
revealed under oath his personal impressions of the pure and
holy life of Thomas:
'

Thomas was a man of a holy life and noble disposition.
He was peaceful, sober, humble, quiet, devout, contemplative,
and so chaste that he was considered a virgin. In food and
in drink be practiced such moderation that he never desired
any special food, nor was he overly concerned about his
apparel. Every day he either celebrated Mass with great devo­
tion, or attended one or two. Except for the hours spent in
necessary repose, he continually devoted himself to lecturing,
writing, praying, or preaching.®
The sworn testimony of William of Tocco is likewise based
upon personal acquaintance, although not as intimate. He
was Prior of the Dominican Convent at Benevento: He was
very active in the process of canonization, having been a
commissioner from the year 1317. The results of his in­
vestigations he condensed into a biography of St. Thomas.
He became acquainted with Thomas at Naples near the close

12

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

of the saint’s life, when he heard him preach and lecture,
and noticed how throngs of people crowded about him with
devotion to hear his sermons. He continued:
Thomas was a most lovable man (homo dulcis), despising
temporal honors, so pure and chaste that he was commonly
thought to be a virgin as from his mother’s womb.
For his testimony, William of Tocco, who was not as
intimate with Thomas as the witnesses previously quoted,
relied upon those who were better acquainted with him.
First he relied upon Peter of Sectia who was procurator of
the Dominicans in England, and preached at Brother Thomas’
funeral. In his eulogy Peter mentioned:

When Thomas was approaching death, he heard his general
confession. His whole life was nothing but prayer, contempla­
tion, lectures, sermons, disputations, writings, and dictations.
William of Tocco, who likewise relied upon the informa­
tion which he had personally received from Reginald of
Pipemo about the learning of the saint, revealed:

fΐ

Thomas did not acquire his knowledge by natural ingenuity,
but rather through the revelation and infusion of the Holy
Spirit, for he never began to write without previous prayer
and tears. Whenever a doubt arose, he had recourse to prayer.
After shedding many tears, he would return to his work, now
enlightened and instructed.

Brother Reginald gave this and other testimony to William
of Tocco in his public lectures.10
The sworn accounts of John Regina of Naples, O.P., one
of the greatest theologians of the oldest Italian Thomistic
School,11 and also an active participant in the canonization
process, are based upon those who had a more personal knowl­
edge of Thomas. For the canonization he prepared a sermon

Features of the Soul and Character of St. Thomas

13

which he was not able to deliver because of sickness. Sub­
stantially his testimony painted the very same picture as
the others.”
Λ
Finally, a valuable testimony from the lips of a man who
did, not belong to the Dominican Order should be cited.
He was Bartholomew of Capua, Logothete and Prothonotary
of die kingdom of Sicily, This reputable man, who had
frequented the Dominican convent at Naples in his younger
years as a student, made use of the reliable information of
Dominicans who had been personally acquainted with
Thomas. Chief among these was John of Cajatia, a Preach­
ing Friar of great renown who was associated with Thomas
(multum familiaris) and was his student at Paris and Naples.
Moreover, Bartholomew of Capua, as a young student,
personally saw and studied Thomas in Naples and was so
impressed that the memory remained with him even in
his old age.
Bartholomew of Capua began his description of the spir­
itual life and character of the saint in this manner:

It was the common opinion of those who lived with Brother
Thomas, especially some of the Friars Preachers most worthy
of credence and respect, that the Holy Spirit was with him;
for they always saw him with a serene countenance, meek, and
humble. Never did he interfere with temporal affairs, but
applied himself constantly to studies, lecturing, writing, and
praying for the enlightenment of the faithful. I have heard
from John of Cajatia that Brother Thomas was always the
first to arise for prayers during the night, and as soon as he
heard the others approaching, he withdrew and returned
to his cell.
Bartholomew next recorded his personal impressions of
the personality of St. Thomas, whom he observed whenever
the opportunity presented itself:

j4

•

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas
Brother Thomas always shunned petty matters, constantly
searching after the sublime. He was a virgin, pure and chaste.
No one could be found who had heard one vain word come
from his lips. Even during disputations, in which men at
times are apt to exceed the rule of moderation, he was always
meek and humble, never using boastful or bragging language.
He was so abstracted from temporal affairs that while he ate
at table, his eyes were turned toward heaven. Dishes could be
placed before him and removed without his taking notice. When the brethren brought him to the garden for recreation,
he would suddenly go off alone, wholly abstracted from his
surroundings, and return to his cell.

Some Dominicans, principally Nicholas Fricino, who attended
the lectures of Brother Thomas and daily heard Mass at the
convent of the Friars Preachers, revealed the following to
Bartholomew:

Brother Thomas celebrated his Mass every day in the early
morning in the Chapel of St. Nicholas. When he had finished,
another priest was ready immediately to celebrate another
Mass. After hearing this Mass, he put aside the vestments
and at once ascended the lecturing chair. His lectures being
finished, he immediately began to write and dictate to numerous
secretaries. After eating, he returned to his cell where : he
engaged in divine contemplation until time to rest After this
he would again assume his writing, and thus his whole life
was ordered to God.13

>

The same witness heard many people express the common
opinion that there was hardly a moment of time which he
let pass uselessly. Bartholomew, who saw Brother Thomas
for many years at Naples, and had spoken with many
Dominicans, could recall but two occasions when he had
seen him outside the cloister: once near the time of vespers;
a second time in Capua at the royal court, where he went
because of some difficulty concerning his nephew.

Features of the Soul and Character of St. Thomas

15

The canonization bull,14 written by Pope John XXII on
July 18, 1323, offers a summary of all the characteristics
which we have found in the testimonies of his canonization.
They comprise a uniform portrait of his soul and character.
A few extracts indicate the principal thoughts of this ancient
document. (The original, preserved in the archives of Tou­
louse, was publicized in photostatic reproductions on the
occasion of St. Thomas’ centenary.) After the pope had
broadly outlined the life and the development of the saint
to the heights of his scientific career as professor of theology
and creator of monumental philosophical and theological
works, he described his saintly interior life:

He accomplished all this as a skillful man, withdrawn from
all earthly ambition and intent upon the attainment of heavenly
goods. In applying himself to study, he put aside the temporal
and strove after God so as to attain the eternal. Hé began
with the divine in order to be fortified in his studies, when,
each day before ascending the lecturing chair, he celebrated
Mass and attended another, or, if he did not celebrate, attend­
ed two Masses. In these Masses as well as in his assiduous
prayers, he revealed, in the shedding of tears, his sweetness of
mind and his devotion to God, from whom nothing is hidden.
He so shone in the splendour of chastity, carefully guarded
with humility, and nourished by recollection, that many be­
lieved he remained incorrupt in the virginity of the flesh. The
saint’s confessor, who belonged to the same Order and who
had heard his confession for many years, also asserted publicly
of him before all his friends: “I have heard the general con­
fession of this holy man, of whom I testify that I have found
him as pure as a boy of five years, for he never experienced
the corruption of the flesh.” This man of God, moreover, was
content with the food of religious and the clothing of the
common life. He was meek in conversation, pleasant in kind­
ness, merciful in piety, subjected in humility, and adorned with
many other virtues. He avoided the vanity of honors, and was

-, 16

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

cautious in his association with women. He never desired to
be prominent. When engaged in a scholastic disputation, he
never became so boastful as to use haughty words, as others
frequently did, even if such words were used by his opponents.
This servant of God was wholly intent upon divine works,
sedulously applying himself to study in which he excelled, to
preaching in which he was moving, to prayer in which he was
devout, to Holy Writ which he understood so well. So it was
that, aside from natural necessity or sleep, he never or rarely
let any time pass in idleness.

■

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTERIOR
LIFE OF ST. THOMAS.

XHE testimonies which we have just examined from the
acts of St. Thomas’ canonization process are all similar and
unified in praising him. The persevering routine of a scholar
who devoted himself completely to God, to his vocation, and.
to his studies in the solitude of his cell, does not resemble
a torrent gushing down the high mountains, but rather a
peaceful and gently flowing brook which waters the fields
and meadows. These everyday observations of the interior
life of St. Thomas assume much livelier and brighter colors if we permit light from the works of the saint to fall upon
them — if, from the depths of his own soul, we draw what
he has written about the aims, laws, and ways of Christian
virtue and perfection. These writings will form a sort of
commentary on the testimonies of his canonization process.
In these testimonies three basic features clearly stand out
above the rest. Thomas is celebrated as a contemplative, as
a thinker living totally in the world of the supersensory, the
supernatural, and the divine. Furthermore, his glowing love
of God, which finds its chief expression in his life of prayer
and in the dedication of his whole life, exterior and interior,
to God, is brought into prominence. Lastly, all these accounts
extol his harmonious, well-balanced character, undisturbed
17

18

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

and untroubled by any inordinate passion, since his virginal
purity, his humility, silence, and modesty, his meekness,
benevolence, and amiability, continually appear as the basic
tendencies of his whole being. I would like to express these
three fundamental traits in the words: wisdom —charity—
peace.

WISDOM

1HE whole intellectual life of St. Thomas bears the
imprint of wisdom; it is completely dedicated to contempla­
tion and to the ordering of truth. In the paintings which
depict the triumph of St. Thomas, art has expressed the root
' of this purest and noblest intellectuality, elevated to the
heights of natural and supernatural contemplation of truth.
We have such portrayals of the triumph of St. Thomas by
Taddeo Gaddi in the Spanish chapel of S. Maria Novella at
' Florence; by Francesco Traini in the Church of St. Catherine
at Pisa; by Filippo Lippi in S. Maria supra Minerva; and
by Benozzo Gozzoli in a tempera painting at the Louvre
at Paris.
P. L. Ferretti, O.P., in his work which we have already
mentioned, has reproduced and described two portrayals of
the triumph of St. Thomas, which until now have remained
generally unknown. One comes from the brush of Antonello
da Messina,1 and at present is found in the National Museum
at Palermo. At the top of this painting, God the Father
appears with two angels at His right, holding in their hands
a book with the inscription : "Bene scripsisti de me Thoma—
You have written well of me, Thomas!” At His left, two angels
likewise hold a book with the words: "Sensum tuum, Domine,
quis scire poterit, nisi tu dederis sapientiam? — Oh Lord, who
19

I

20

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

could know what you mean unless you gave wisdom?”, Here
wisdom is pointed out as an essential feature of St. Thomas.
In the middle of the portrait, the saint is seated upon a
throne, surrounded hy angels. A pope is at his right, a king
at his left. Farther to the rear, at his left, clerics and reli­
gious; and at his right, lay people listen to his words. Aver­
roës lies at his feet defeated and vanquished.
The second painting comes from the school of Antonello
da Messina, and is now preserved in the Museum of Palazzo
Bellomo at Siracusa.2 Here Thomas is pictured upon the
lecturer’s chair. St. Peter stands to his right, while St. Paul
is at his left. A crowd of listeners, both religious and lay,
give ear to his teaching. Again Averroes, whose intellectual
defeat forms the fundamental idea in all these representations
of the triumph of St. Thomas, is pictured at the bottom of
the painting.
In the paintings of Traini and Gozzoli, the book which
St. Thomas has opened before him, bears, as the motto of
his intellectual life’s work, the words: ‘Veritatem meditabitur
guttur meum et labia mea detestabuntur impium—My mouth
shall meditate truth: and my lips shall hate wickedness”
(Prov. 8:7). These are the exact words which Thomas placed
at the beginning of his Summa contra Gentiles with which
he explains the function of the wise man.
'The greatest and most impressive of all these paintings
is the triumph of St. Thomas (by Antonio di Bonainto, not
Taddeo Gaddi) in the Capella degli Spagnoli at Florence.
Here St. Thomas is seated upon the lecturer's chair, holding
an open book in which are the words: “Optavi et datus est
mihi sensus. Invocavi et venit in me spiritus sapientiae —
Therefore I wished, and understanding was given me: and I
called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me”

. Wisdom

2i
V

Z

._

(Wisd. 7:7)· P· J· Berthier, O.P., who explains in his weighty
monograph the ideas of these portraits, pertinently remarks:
The whole life of the Doctor of Aquino is expressed in these
words. Even in childhood he desired a higher and more divine
knowledge. Thus at Monte Cassino, he asked the astounded
teacher. “What is God?” He prayed for knowledge and attained
it; he longed for andjmplored a deep insight and received it.
He prayed and the. spirit of wisdom desccnded-iiponJinn. He
left all: his noble name, parents, earthly prospects and hopes,
in order to follow wisdom. He_preferred wisdom to.all.honors.,’
We are able to distinguish a threefold wisdom in which /

Thomas found the meaning, and thehappiness.of life: meta­
physics, which has already been characterized as σοφία by
Aristotle; supernatural theology; and the gift of -wisdom, 1
the wisdom of the supernatural gift of the Holy Ghost, which
lays the foundation for [quasij-experimental knowledge of/
God, the loving and blessed contemplation of God.
|
Thomas is the greatest metaphysician of scholasticism, and,
in general, of all Christian philosophy. He unified into a
magnificent and original synthesis the inductive and anthropo­
centric metaphysics of Aristotle, to which he wrote an ap­
proving commentary, and the theocentric metaphysics of St.
Augustine. His metaphysical bent sought, to.reproduceJnjhe.
mind the whole order of the universe and its causes. Father
Garrigou-Lagrange, the best authority and representative of
Thomistic metaphysics in our day, characterizes the philosophy
of St. Thomas as the philosophy of being in contrast to the
modem philosophy which he describes as a philosophy of
becoming, of phenomenalism.4 Father Olgiati, an outstanding
Italian philosopher, has represented in his book L!anima de '
San Tommaso,9 the metaphysics of being as the soul of the
whole Thomistic system. Thomas rules the realm of facts and

- ·ιι·ΐί—-

-, <?,,.—wg^g»—

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

i

ideas from the heights of the science of being. Therefore, if
one wishes to weigh and appreciate Thomas in all his genius
and importance, he must take his stand here.
In this work, I do not intend to enter into the basic and
fundamental questions of Thomistic metaphysics, into the
doctrine of being, the real and universal validity of first
principles, into his doctrine of potentiality and actuality, es­
sence and existence, into the metaphysical coloring of his
theory of knowledge, his ethics, and his aesthetics by the
concepts of the ontological true, good, and beautiful, into
his metaphysics of causes, and his theological consideration
of the universe. I only wish to call attention briefly to two
points: first, the importance of St. Thomas’ metaphysical
method of procedure for forming and systematizing his scienti­
fic structure; and secondly, the influence of this metaphysical
outlook on his understanding of nature and the supernatural.
These are considerations in which the weight of wisdom exerts
its peculiar force: limiting, ordering, and supervising all from
the highest principles.
The scientific formation and the order, so admired and
worthy of admiration, of the thought and of the works of St.
' Thomas, are not merely an external arrangement and an exact
assembling of material, not merely a function and result of
logical classification. Rather it is an internal evolution, _in
which lofty metaphysical and theological thoughts and views,
in their conclusions, applications, and relations, pervade and
govern, as dominating principles, the whole intellectual structure, giving it a perfectly unified style. The external arrange­
ment is only the appearance, the garment of this inner order,
which grows by organically developing and forming a central
idea. In the Summa Theologica, the unsurpassable monument
of Thomistic architectonics, we see this metaphysical approach

i
I
f
(

22

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Wisdom

23

in its inner union with and mutual penetration hy the sublime
thoughts of supernatural revelation.
This systematic development and organic "unfolding of
Thomistic metaphysics is manifested in its purest form in the
first three books of the Summa contra Gentiles. The perspec­
tives of the philosophico-theological structure of St. Thomas
most clearly and effectively unveil themselves when through­
out the whole system we observe these fundamental thoughts
of metaphysics in their conseqüences and applications, as
Thomists of ancient and recent times have done with great
profit.
The metaphysics of St. Thomas is not merely an arrange­
ment of ideas, but stands in living relationship with reality..
It is a basic conviction of his philosophy that the human
mind, chiefly by abstraction, then also by intuition and in- ■'
ference, is able to discover being and the laws and relations i
of being in experienced reality. It can perceive an agree­
ment between die laws of being and the structure of the
mind, the ratio in both a subjective and objective sense,
which has its ultimate foundation in God, the First Cause of i
being and thought.·
The supreme laws of being in their transcendent validity,
surpassing the limits of Empiricism, are similar to unshakable
pillars upon which our knowledge of causes lays the bridge to
a knowledge of God. The metaphysical doctrine on the analogy
of being teaches that being is not said about God and about
creatures in a univocal or identical sense, nor in an equivocal
or entirely different and improper sense, but rather in a similar
sense relating the finite effect to the infinite cause. This doc­
trine points out, for our knowledge of God and the world, the
true middle way .between Monism on one side .and Agnosti­
cism and pure symbolism on the other. The metaphysical

Ί

24

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

.'

doctrine of potency and act, of the real distinction between
essence and, existence in creatures, helps to bring out clearly .
and precisely, in the Thomistic system, die basic distinction
between God and the world, the transcendence of God over
the world. On the other hand, careful reflection upon the
universal divine causality, embracing the innermost being and
activity of creatures, gives a profound understanding of the
immanence of God in the world. These are but a few
indications of the influence of St. Thomas’ metaphysical ap­
proach on the formation and systematization of his philosophi­
cal and theological thought.
Here likewise I can express myself only briefly on the
second point—the influence of this metaphysical viewpoint

/^Thomas. If one reads the main theological works of Thomas,
j, \ above all his Summa Theologica, the philosophical, especially
TA \ the metaphysical, expositions seem to take up so much space
) in totally theological contexts that the supernatural, the purely
C*theological part, withdraws into the background. This seems
so especially in comparison to the writings of other great
scholastics, such as, perhaps, St. Bonaventure. Ijigjntellectual
I structure of. St..Thomas has.gjven the impression of rationalism
to many earnest students. And yet, this is far from the
/ '
truth.
None of the great Catholic theologians of the Middle Ages
has so precisely and clearly drawn the distinction between
the natural and supernatural, between faith and reason, be­
tween philosophy and theology. And since he so accurately
distinguished, he also very dearly defined the natural and
supernatural, faith and reason, philosophy and theology, and
showed their harmony_as well.7 Philosophical and theological
tendencies, ori tlmotherTand, which at first glance may seem

Wisdom

2.5

to bear much more the stamp of the supernatural, such as
Jansenism, Traditionalism, and Ontologism, have blotted out
the distinction between the natural and the supernatural. In
fact, they so obscured the supernatural they eventually reduced
it to nothing.
The distinction as well as the harmony between die nat­
ural and the supernatural, faith and reason, philosophy and
theology rest, according to St. Thomas, upon the rock founda­
tion of metaphysical convictions. God, the Absolute Being,
is the First Principle and First Cause of all finite natural
being, which by reason of the divine act of creation is in the
natural order a participation in the divine being. God, whose
infinite plenitude of being and intelligence towers above all
natural knowledge in the mysterious fecundity of the intimate
life of the Trinity, is also the cause of the supernatural.
Through a divine act of love and grace, the created soul is
elevated to a participation in this mysterious life of God;
it is raised to a sublime form and degree of union with God
far exceeding all our natural expectations and abilities. The
two rays of natural and supernatural truth, which are used
in reason and faith, philosophy and theology, also flow from
the bosom of God, the Absolute Eternal Truth. These are
precisely the metaphysical convictions which bring Thomas to
affirm the harmony between the natural and the supernatural
orders of truth.
The great truths of metaphysics, the supreme laws of being,
which simultaneously are laws of thought, are anchored—as
St. Thomas teaches in conjunction with St. Augustine —in
the intellect and nature of God, having absolute validity in
the domain of the natural as well as in the supernatural order.
Even the supernatural truths, revealed by God, fit within the
framework of the highest metaphysical truths, although in

HI

26

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

themselves they are enthroned far above the pinnacles of
metaphysics. Following the teaching of St. Thomas, the con-. |

tingent physical order can be interrupted through the omnip- ί
otence of God for a proof of a divine revelation and mission.
Yet, between the unshakable principles of metaphysics and the
truths of supernatural revelation, no actual opposition can
exist. The scientific doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, as it is
developed principally in his profound work In Boethium de
Trinitate, shows the mutual dependence and unity of the
various branches of human knowledge by reason of their
metaphysical orientation, and also manifests the harmony
between the natural and supernatural knowledge of truth.8
One will never thoroughly understand the philosophy or
the theology of the Angelic Doctor, nor be able to penetrate
to the depths of his supernatural consideration of God and the
universe, unless he has devoted himself through ceaseless
study to the metaphysical concepts in his works. The oldest
scholars-of St. Thomas, whose works are constantly becom­
ing better known through manuscript research, have plunged
themselves direcdy into these metaphysical problems in the
spirit of their much beloved teacher. At the close of the
Middle Ages, the Dominicans, Paulus Soncinas and Domini­
cus of Flanders, exposed the Aristotelian-Thomistic meta­
physics in enormous works. In our day, since an ardent desire
for metaphysics captivates the minds of many, the meta­
physics of St. Thomas has not lost its sublime worth, so
proved in the intellectual warfare of centuries. Thus Pope
Pius XI writes in his encyclical in honor of St. Thomas (June
29,1923):
And although his metaphysical teachings have aroused the
bitterness of hostile critics, yet they still retain their force and
splendour like pure gold that no acid can dissolve or tarnish.

Wisdom

2,7

Catholic philosophers, such as R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P
J. Maréchal, S.J., C. Beaumker, J. Geyser, and others, have
demonstrated in numerous ways, by the contrast between St.
Thomas’ metaphysics and the modem current of thought,
that Thomistic metaphysics has not lost its significance in the
current intellectual strife.9 Even thinkers outside Catholic
and scholastic circles, who from prejudice oppose metaphysics,
come unconsciously, and even consciously, to convictions in
epistemology and metaphysics which are not far from the
fundamental concepts of Thomistic metaphysics. An eminent
natural philosopher of our time, who combines a very thorough
scientific specialization with philosophical acumen, writes as
follows:
My conviction is rooted in the intellectual school of Aristotle
and his followers of the Middle Ages, Albert the Great and
Thomas Aquinas. While Albert already claimed experience to
be the sole source of truth in scientific research, credit goes
to St. Thomas for having established the principle of causality
(no effect is without its cause) as the basis of philosophy and
therefore also of natural science. Thomas realized, further­
more, that the relation of cause and effect did, not suffice as
an explanation of natural phenomena, but that for living things
there must be an intellectual being as director and governor
of nature, because of the undeniable finality and teleology
manifested in them. Thus by a twofold consideration, namely,
by the principles of causality and finality, Thomas concluded
the existence of God from created nature.10
The second and loftier form of wisdom is theology, sacra
doctrina, the sacred science, as St. Thomas loves to call it.11
While metaphysics, the queen of all natural knowledge, is
purely human, natural wisdom and science, theology is the
human-divine wisdom antLscience. Theology is divine in its
principles, the mysteries of faith revealed by God, and in its

ea

28

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

supernatural divine faith with which we asserit with absolute
certitude to these truths. It is human in drawing conclusipns,
chiefly with the help of philosophy, from the truths of faith,
in uncovering and unfolding the depths and relations of
truths hidden in revealed doctrines. Metaphysics, in its ulti­
mate and loftiest consideration, is also a science of things
divine. But in so far as all philosophy is ordained to a knowl­
edge of God through creatures, metaphysics is only a knowl­
edge of God acquired by human reason climbing, from below,
1
a ladder of causes. Metaphysics is a knowledge of divine
j
things as we see them (secundum nostrum modum), a knowl;
edge fitted to our natural intellectual life and never exceeding
,
Λ
; ·■ - ·
.
· ■'.■.■ d-ι
Theology, on the other hand, is a knowledge of divine
things~asTfiey are in themselves (secundum modum ipsorum
divinorum), going beyond the natural capacity of our mind,
orientated to God’s knowledge of Himself, suited to the super­
natural character of the mysteries of faith. It is a knowledge of
the divine mysteries seen from the viewpoint of divine wisdom
itself. This God-formed, if we wish to call it such, knowl“
edge of divine things will be possible and complete only in
J
heaven, in the eternal unveiled vision of God. The present
supernatural theology is merely a participation of the celestial
theology, similar to the knowledge of God Himself in so far
as through infused faith it adheres to God, the First Truth,
on account of Himself.1*
Thomas expresses his lofty conception of the nature of
theology in the sentence: "Sacra doctrina est velut quaedam
impressio divinae scientiae, quae est una et simplex omnium’
CS. Th., I, q. x, a. 3, ad 2). Sacred science, in a certain
sense, is an impression, a stamping of divine knowledge upon
our mind, and thus it participates in the properties of God’s

Wisdom

.

'

29

knowledge, in His unity and simplicity. With good reason
one points to Raphael’s Disputa as the representation of theological science, which is subordinated to the science of God
and the Blessed.
For Thomas, theology isjiot merely science and the highest
of all the sciences, but rather wisdom — sapientia divina. The
saintly Doctor teaches:

Theology is wisdom in so far as it considers the highest
causes. ... It is said to be wisdom more so than metaphysics
for it considers the highest causes according to the mode of
the causes themselves, since it is accepted immediately from
God through revelation. Metaphysics, on the other hand,
considers the highest causes from viewpoints taken from the
realm of creatures. Hence this doctrine (theology) is said to
be more divine than metaphysics, for it is divine in. respect
to the subject and the approach, whereas metaphysics is divine
only in respect to the subject.13
Since St. Thomas elevates the science of theology to wis­
dom, he thereby gives it an eminent ethical significance,
stressing the intimate, mutual relation between theology and
life. For this reason Thomas frequently emphasizes the importance of supernatural. ethicaL purity_and sanctity for a
theological knowledge. Life precedes doctrine and science;
life leads to a knowledge of truth. In other sciences it suffices
that man be perfect intellectually. T^ejliyine_scienceJL_on_the
contrary, demands perfeçtion_of_intellecCand affection.14 Especially in chastity and humility. Thomas sees helpful dispositions for a deep arid fruitful understanding of theology.
The purpose ofa_chaste. virginal life consists in this —that
man, unhampered by sensual desire^çan_devote himself , to
the ynntemplation of divine things (liberius divinae contem­
plationi vacat).15 In pride, Thomas sees an obstacle to true
science and wisdom, fruitful for thought and life, in so far

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30

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

as the proud person takes delight in his own supposed great­
ness and glory, and consequently loses the reverencê and
loving understanding for the excellence of truth. Humility,
on the other hand, makes man broad and receptive toward
God : “Humility makes man capable of God."18
With extraordinary warmth St. Thomas stresses the in­
fluence of the supernatural virtue of charity and the gifts
of the Holy Ghost, especially the gifts of understanding and
wisdom, for a fruitful acquisition of theology. Thus we are
led to the third consideration of wisdom, the gift of the Holy
Ghogt. In his commentary on the Gospel according to St
John, St. Thomas writes:
For just as a lamp is not able to illuminate unless a fire
is enkindled, so also a spiritual lamp [by this Thomas refers
to the priest, the theologian as student and preacher of super­
natural truth] does not illuminate [i.e., receive and then give
to others a profound understanding of the truths of faith]
unless he first bum and be inflamed with the fire of charity.
Hence ardor precedes illumination, for a knowledge of truth
is bestowed by the ardor of charity.17

The gift of understanding confers a supernatural acuteness,
a deep and clear insight into the mysteries of faith. The gift
of wisdom, which has as a foundation the affective union of
the soul with God, by sharing in the intimacy of the divine
nature, gives an affective knowledge of divine things which
depends upon this inner union of life and love with God
iand the divine.18 Wisdom permits us to discover and taste
these divine mysteries, especially the most secret workings of
God in the soul filled with grace, and gives a loving and
blissful [quasij-experimental knowledge of God, a contemIplation of divine realities, founded upon love and flowing
'again into love. To behold the unfathomable depths of God,

to direct our vision toward God, to rejoice in the contemplation
of the divine and thereby to be inflamed to a new love—to
do all this out of love under an impulse of the Holy Spirit,
who is personal divine Love, is the effect of the gift of wisdom,
which here, before all else, is the principle of mystical con­
templation and union with God, If Thomas is characterized
with such insistence in the testimonies of the canonization
process as a contemplative, then certainly we have full right
to think about the gift of wisdom and mystical contemplation.
In the Middle Ages and at present, opinions have been
advanced which desired to exclude St. Thomas from the
history of mysticism because of his Aristotelian intellectualism.
The Carthusian, Vincent of Aggabach, defender of an anti­
intellectual mystical movement, wrote at the close of the
Middle Ages that St. Thomas had not once even faintly
mentioned mystical theology in his whole Summa as well as
in his other works (nec tenuem mentionem de mystica theo­
logica facit).™ Recently the Benedictine, Abbot Butler,20
highly respected in patrology and the history of monasticism,
expressed a similar view.
The history of mystical theology is the best refutation of
this assertion. The German mystics of the Order of Preachers,
in so far as they do not fall under the influence of Neo­
Platonism, the Benedictine mystics, John of Castel, Bernard
of Wagung, and others, especially the Spanish mystics of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and St. Francis of Sales
in his Theotimus—all came under the inspiration of St.
Thomas. From the mystical literature of the present day, I
need only refer to the works in the La Vie Spirituelle by
Father Garrigou-Lagrange, from whose pen have come the
comprehensive works: Perfection chrétienne et Contempla­
tion selon S. Thomas d’Aquin et S. Jean de la Croix, and

32

; The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Traité de théologie ascétique et mystique, Les trois âges de
la vie intérieure 'prélude de celle du ciel.21
Father Gardeil, O.P.,22 one of the most versatile and pro­
found Thomists of our day, in a beautiful book on the gifts
of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican saints/ designates as
' the characteristic intellectual gift of St. Thomas not the gift
of understanding, as one would expect, .but rather the gift of .
wisdom. He bases this choice upon the attraction of the
saint toward a contemplation of divine truths, toward a loving
penetration into the depths of the mysteries of God. Not
only in doctrine, but also in life, Thomas was a contemplative.
He was, as Lavaud writes in his description of St. Thomas’
sanctity,23 a contemplative soul similar to a St. John of the
Cross. His life is rich in experiences which belong to the
highest form of mysticism.
William of Tocco, relying upon the testimony of Reginald
of Pipemo, who in turn was allowed to see all the secrets of
this beautiful and holy soul entirely dedicated to God, re­
ports many occurrences of mystical conversation with a higher
world. Mystical contemplation, especially toward the end of
his life in Naples, was so intense and lasting that he sus­
pended his literary activity (suspendit organa scriptionis). To
the request of Reginald that he should write further and
bring his works to their completion, Thomas answered:

Reginald, I cannot; for all that I have written appears as
straw compared to what I have seen. I hope that God will
soon prepare an end to my life and teaching.2*

We can thus consider wisdom, in the threefold sense of
metaphysics, of theology»^and of.mystical cpntemplation, as
the character of St· Thomas’ intellectual life. In him we meet
these three kinds of wisdom in all their individuality and differ­

Wisdom

33

ence, but always in full harmony. We agree with Lavaud’s
statement that whoever would fully understand the mutual
harmony of these three forms of wisdom in the soul of St.
Thomas would penetrate and understand the innermost depths
of his whole interior life.25 Thomas began his literary activity
in a most promising way with the work De Ente et Essen­
tia, an ingenious ground plan of metaphysics. At the height
of his scientific labors, he wrote his Summa Theologica in
which he combines metaphysics, speculative theology, and
mystical intuition. On his deathbed in the cloister cell at
Fossanuova, he expounded to die monks die Canticle of
Canticles, the song of loving mystical contemplation.
Fr. Lacordaire, O.P.,28 notes as one of the first qualities of
a theologian the ability to discriminate in applying the human,
natural element to the religious sphere, and observes that St.
TÇhomas had this qualification in a very eminent degree.
Thomas created a philosophy in whose veins flowed the blood
of Aristode, purified, however, by his own blood and the
blood of earlier Christian thinkers. With this ability for differ­
entiating when using the human or finite element, St? Thomas
united a life deeply immersed in the divine element. He
possessed a penetrating insight, symbolized by the eagle of St.
John, into die contemplation of divine mysteries; a keenness
of vision that is so difficult to define, yet recognizable if one,
after his own reflection on some truth of Christianity, ques­
tions someone else whose ear has perceived the voice of the
Infinite and has plunged more deeply into this abyss of God’s
mysteries. In this respect, a great theologian is similar to a
great artist. The one, like the other, beholds what the ordinary
eye never sees;, both hear what the ear of die crowd cannot
possibly detect. Such is die power of a discoverer in die region
of die infinite, the intellectual apprehension of an infinite

34

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

horizon, which constitutes and blesses, according to Lacordaire,
a great theologian.
The lectures of St. Thomas permit us to recognize such a
genius, who, with the greatest certainty of possessing divine
truths, boldly soars to the heights, where an endless panorama
of truth looms before the amazed and enraptured intellect.
If one has studied a problem from the works of famous men,
so Lacordaire continues, and then returns to Thomas, he feels
that in him and with him with one flight he has traversed a
broader expanse of truth. The great French orator also ex­
tols this solidity of order in which Thomas, subordinating
always the human to_the_divine, joins the natural with the
supernatural.-Thusa^wonderfuLunitv.-.arises, which never
contradictsjtsel£rin_this_tremendous scientific work. In St.
Thomas’ style, Lacordaire sees the true appearance of the
inner nature of his science and wisdom. This is a style
which permits the truth to he seen in all its profundity, as
a man sees the fish on the bottom of a placid sea, or sees
the stars shine through a clear sky. It is a style peaceful and
transparent, at once without fancy and emotion, delighting
and fascinating the intellect.

Chapter II
CHARITY

J_HE second feature in our portrait of the soul and char­
acter of St. Thomas, which unfolds itself from the acts of the
canonization process, is charity — a most fervent, glowing love
of God and neighbor.
Charity molded his whole life, directed all his works toward
a divine service of God, finding its most touching expression
in his life of prayer. We have already noticed this particular
aspect in our discussion of the gift of wisdom, the mystical
characteristic of his intellectual life.
The testimonies of the canonization process now receive
additional light and confirmation from the writings of die
saint. Hjs_jpjgstinns on charity, on the Christian ideal of
perfection, on die religious state in the Secunda Secundae,
the quaestio disputata de chart taie, the profoundly intimate
passages in his commentaries on Sacred Scripture, especially
on St. John’s Gospel and the Pauline episdes, all offer us
a theology of charity. One realizes their beauty and sublimity
the better, the more often and more meditatively he reads
these texts? Beams of light and love simultaneously emanate
from these passages and give the impression that only a
theologian in whose heart die divine fire of love brilliandy
glows can so write about this divine charity.
Aristotelian intellectualism has soared to its heights in St.
Thomas’ treatment of divine charity. Through Thomas, this
35

36

s'Mt

(I

i

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

philosophy finds an independent, evident, and purposeful
realization. More than any other system, it offers means of
explaining the ultimate and more intricate questions of philos­
ophy, and the origin and development of the supernatural
order, which rests on the inner trinitarian life of God.
For this life on earth, St. Thomas proposes the principle
that the love of God is better and mQre_valuable_ than the
knowledge of God, and teaches us the comforting doctrine
that we can love God more than we can know Him.2 The
mystics, for example, Blessed John Castel, have gratefully
taken over this beautiful and encouraging thought.
While Aristotle views the “θεωρία rip άλη^ίας—contempla­
tion of truth” as the end and completion of this earthly sojourn,
St. Thomas considers charity, the supernatural virtue of love
of God and neighbor, as the end and ideal of the Christian
life. This love permits us to strive after God, in so far as it
unites the affections of man to God, so that man himself no
longer lives but rather God.s Since the Christian supernatural
life consists in charity, in love, the perfection of this life
. consists, according to St. Thomas, in the perfection of charity,
in the love of God and neighbor.
There is a perfection of love of God which belongs to God
alone, since He alone can love with an infinite love, as He,
the absolutely highest Good, deserves to be loved.4 The Holy
Ghost, the personal divine Love through whom the love of
God is infused into our hearts, proceeds from the love of
the Father and the Son in the intimate life of the Trinity.
A second degree in the perfection of the love of God is in
the realm of the finite and proper to the Blessed in heaven.
Their total knowledge and love are uninterruptedly ordered
in one continuous act toward God, the unveiled divine Love,
whom they contemplate face to face. Their whole activity

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Charity

37

and life are an eternal, ineffably brilliant, glowing, and
blessed ecstasy of love in this vision, enjoyment, and èmbrace
of the infinite triune God.
j
This semper actu ferri in Deum, this perfection of love,
ί
in which the affection, in so far as it is able, is always actually
I
directed toward God, is not possible here below because of the
''
union· of body and soul, because of the poverty of our earthly
J
existence. Yet, wherever Thomas speaks of the perfection of
;
charity, this unbroken_loving dedication of the heart and
<
the whole man to God, these continuously intimate acts
i
renewing our dependence upon God hover before him as the
\
ideal toward which we are to strive even during this life.
j
Thomas sought to realize this ideal in himself, in the degree
ΐ
possible on this earth, by a life totally removed from the things
Î
of this world, according to the testimonies of the canonization
process. Vincent Contenson, O.P.,B writes in his Theologia
mentis et cordis, that Thomas is the Angelic Doctor not only
because of his angelic purity and chastity and because of his
l·
keen intellect which pierced the depths of truth, but also
because he was living spiritually with the angels in heaven,
although still lingering with his body upon the earth.
'
l·
For this life on earth St. Thomas distinguishes between
a perfection of love which is obligatory and necessary for all
p
and a perfection of love which surpasses the ordinary degree, ’■■■■■■.■ l·
constituting the object of the evangelical counsels.
Thejirst degree of love consists in ordering all to God as
to one’s final end, in subjecting one’s whole life to thé service
of God, and in avoiding mortal sin which turns us away from
God as from our final supernatural end. The second and more
ennobled form of the perfection of love which we can attain
s
upon this earth consists in the .greatest possible striving after
the heavenly perfection of charity, in practicing the most

^^ΗΗΒΒΒΒΐΡ!^^β«,-.«ί6ί.

38

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

fervent, actual, and constant loving conversation and dévotion
of the soul with God. This perfection is manifest in the
liveliness, the activity, the fiery zeal of love pressing forward
• into action, in the fervor charitatis. Such a fervor of charity,
which St. Thomas stresses so much in his writings, permeated . I
his whole being and life, permitting him to labor simply and
|
solely for the glory of God in a holy, humble forgetfulness of
self until the very consumption of all his bodily strength.
It let him see and attain the ideal of his Order (contemplata
:
aliis tradere) in the union of the contemplative and active life.
The life of St. Thomas was an undisturbed clinging to
God, manifesting itself in fervent deeds, “an adhering to
God through charity” —as if he preferred the use of the
expression "adhere" to “inhere.” The result and expression of
this fervor charitatis, of this undivided and unhampered
adherence to God through charity, .was a deep and heartfelt
dedication through prayer and study to an unbroken service
of his mind and heart to God.
The soul will be the more inflamed by the fire of this love,
the actuality and vitality of this love will proportionately in­
crease, according as the soul detaches itself from all earthly
relations, even from those in themselves tolerable and reconcil­
able with the state oTgrace. Now come into play the evan­
gelical counsels, whose observance releases the soul of man
from attachment to material things, permitting the soul to
give itself up to God in a wholly free and unhindered
manner. They fill us with a holy longing to belong to God
i completely, to sacrifice to God everything, that we are and
I have, to fulfill in all things the most holy will of God as
I well as letting its fulfillment take place in us:
AU the counsels, by which we are called to perfection, tend
to withdraw the heart of man from the love of temporal affairs,

Charity

39

so that the mind can more freely turn to God in contem­
plating, loving, and fulfilling His will.®
Voluntary poverty severs us from attachment to earthly goods.
Perpetual chastity and virginity enable us to serve God with >
a clean heart and pure love, and being thus freed, to cling
and devote ourselves totally to God. In obedience, the Chris­
tian, forsaking self, offers his will to God in sacrifice.
These evangelical counsels form the essence of the reli­
gious state. In his Summa Theologica CII-II, 185-189), as
well as in his three other works written in defense of the
religious ideal, especially in the excellent work, De Perfectione
Vitae Spiritualis, Thomas, in a very profound and yet clear
exposition, has most beautifully and strikingly expressed what­
ever has been scientifically written on the nature of the
religious state. Only he who has grasped this state in all its
depth and extension, who has taken upon himself all its
consequences, who has embraced it widi the sum-total love
of his own heart, can so write about the religious state.
The acts of the canonization process depict Thomas as
a holy, perfect religious. They tell us about his ardent desire
to live until the end of his life in the quiet of the cloister
simply and solely for his God, sacred science, and the reli­
gious calling. With tears he requested Pope Clement IV to
cancel his nomination as Archbishop of Naples. Another
earnest request of his prayer was to remain a simple religious
to the very end of his life. His prayer was heard—his wish
fulfilled. The great theologians of his Order rose to high
ecclesiastical dignities: his teacher, Albert the Great, became
bishop; his friend, Annibald de Annibaldis, became cardinal;
his colleague as professor at the University of Paris, Peter of
Tarentaise, became cardinal and later pope. Also his friend
in nobility, Adenulf of Anagni, the nephew of Gregory IX,

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

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a professor at Paris, of whom we know too little, was elected
to the bishopric bf Paris upon his entrance into the cloister
of St. Victor. Thomas, the greatest of them all, died a simple
Friar Preacher at Fossanuova.
Here I cannot discuss in greater detail how Thomas likewise explained the perfection of Christian love of neighbor,
and how he clearly distinguished .between, the .practice of
virtue which.is_obIigatory.for.alLand_thatjwhich is the_Qbject
of the counsels. The heights to which St. Thomas elevated
love of neighbor is manifested when he admonishes^jinder
-certain circumstances, that the contemplative life, which he;

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considers to be intrinsically of greater value than.jhe_active
life,.beJntexiupted and even abandoned in .order,to.daate
ourselves to the service and salvation of our neighbor’s soulIn a passage from his work, De Perfectione Vitae Spiritualis, which describes, with the living colors of his own
interior life and heroic disposition, the abounding perfection
of a holy, devoted love of neighbor, he enunciates the following beautiful principle:
And in so far as contemplation is superior to activity, so
- much the more would he appear to work for God, who, .at the
expense of his much_loyed.contemplation,JaborS_Tor—his
.neighbors^salrotiôh~because of God. Therefore, to labor for
the salvatiorTofourTeighbor, even at the expense of contemplation, for the love of God and neighbor, appears to be a higher
perfection of charity than if he would cling so dearly to the
sweetness of contemplation as to be totally unwilling to
sacrifice it even for the salvation of others.7

These thoughts we likewise meet in the German mystics,
Eckhart and Tauler.·
In his life and writings, St. Thomas resolutely held the
principle which he clearly understood and consequently lived

I

Charity

41

-that charity is the form of the virtues, giving perfection,
activity, unity, worth, and direction to the whole supernatural
Christian life of virtue^For the higher degrees of striving
after perfection, purified of earthly affairs and devoted to God,
St. Thomas has described, in a way only one living and
seeking after perfection can, this elevation and glorification
of the whole interior, life._ihrQUgh_chaiity and the gifts of
dieHolyJ3hasi^opn^
He has described
noble souls, who constantly seek through humility and
penance to purge themselves from all stains and imperfections
which oppose in any way the ideal of purity and sanctity
seen in God; souls who joyfully and generously respond to
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit even when these summon
the most severe and painful resolution on the part of man
to act and to suffer. Love of God and neighbor expresses itself
in these heroic souls in the holiest and noblest dispositions,
in ardent and fervent interior deeds, and in an exterior
actiyity-conipatible .with, anjardinary jvay. oJ life.
In one passage St. Thomas has shown, with remarkable
conciseness, clarity, and beauty, how the cardinal virtues are
completely imbued with and enlivened by charity as their
form in a purified soul living only for God.® In so far as
the cardinal virtues order the natural and social life of man
[acquired moral virtues], they are called “social” virtues.
In so far as the cardinal virtues orientate themselves to the
ideal of divine sanctity, supematurally known and loved, and
are concerned with the higher ways of Christian perfection,
lifted above everything natural and material [infused moral
virtues], they become partly “perfecting” virtues and partly
“perfect” virtues. The former [infused moral virtues imperated
by charity] completely purify the soul and dispose it for the
contemplative union with God, while the latter [infused

42,

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

moral virtues in their specific act] are virtues of life making
possible imitation of and union with God here and in heaven.
As perfecting virtues, prudence despises all earthly things
for the contemplation of the things of God, and directs
the whole intellectual vision unswervingly to the divine.
Temperance frees one, in so far as nature permits, of all
corporeal comfort and pleasure. Fortitude gives the soul the
courage and strength wholeheartedly to undertake the trials
and sacrifices of this complete detachment from earthly and
corporeal things, and to apply itself without stint to supernaturaLand-heavenlyJhings. Justice makes the soul agree to
this holy resolution to lead such a life. In such few short
strokes, the saint has pictured the cardinal virtues in their
Christian, supernatural elevation, in their proper place within
the framework of Christian perfection.
These virtues receive an even more sublime meaning as
perfect virtues, virtues completely detached from the world,
which unite and make us similar to God. Prudence considers
now only the divine; temperance recognizes no sensual desires;
fortitude no longer feels the vehemence of the passions;
justice, in imitation of the Divine Mind, is united in an
everlasting bond with the spirit of God. The Blessed in
heaven and a few very perfect souls upon earth properly
possess the cardinal, virtues in their perfection. In such a
description of the twofold aspect of the cardinal virtues, which
are animated by charity, Thomas has sketched, without ever
intending it, a portrait of his own pure and holy inner life
in which charity is truly the form, the entelechy of the virtues.
At another place where he treats of the conjectural knowl­
edge regarding our state of grace, he proposes as a criterion
that anybody is in the state of grace and charity in quantum
percipit se delectari in Deo et contemnere res mundanos.10

Charity

43

Anybody-can know nvith- moral-certitude, sufficient for a
ChristianJife-oLviitu^andTor_seeking_afier_per£ectioii_that
he is in ffie state of sanctifying grace and love, ifhe. according
to the testimony of his conscience, finds his happiness in_God
and_paysdittle^attentioruto4:he-things _oLthis-WQrld. In these
simple words, St. Thomas has revealed the basic state of his
own inner life. In God alone he found his joy, satisfaction,
and the fulfillment of all his desires and quests. In com­
parison to this happiness of lovingly clinging to God, all that
is temporal and perishable appeared to him empty and in­
sufficient to completely satisfy the human person, who,
according to knowledge and love, is made for the infinite.
For St. Thomas, spiritual joy Qgaudium spirituale') is an
effect of charity, which is prior to all the other effects which
flow from this love.11 The fervor charitatis, the lively devotion\
of love toward God, busying itself in the most frequent and
fervent deeds, is the principal source of the most pure super- ,
natural beatitude of soul. Devotion,- the consecration of the y
heart and mind to God in the practices of piety, in which the
fervor charitatis expresses itself most ardently, has spiritual
happiness (laetitia spiritualis) as its special effect. This/
happiness issues from a devout meditation on and contempla^
tion of the divine goodness, although thoughts on the suffering
of Christ and on our own sins and sinfulness fill us simul­
taneously with a holy sorrow.12 The tears which are shed in''
true prayer to God do not flow merely from grief, but also
from a certain tenderness of heart. Such is especially the case,
when one contemplates a religious subject in which joy is
mingled with sorrow.13 Here the saint can speak from his
own experience since both the testimony of his canonization
process and the bull of canonization tell us that he shed
abundant tears during his prayers.

44

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

/The fervor of charity and spiritual delight are intimately
connected in the Most Holy Eucharist, in Holy Communion.
Holy Communion, especially if received without the impedi­
ments of deliberate- venial sin, distraction, and an inordinate
earthly attachment, causes not only a strengthening and
increase of habitual love, but also an enkindling to ardent
acts of love, to a fervor charitatis. This excitatio caritatis ad
actum, this inflaming to divine acts of love, is the source of
spiritual joy, oCjspirituaLdelight which overflows into the
soul from such devout communions. St. Thomas speaks of
an effect of Holy Communion which he calls a quaedam
actualis refectio spiritualis dulcedinis, a refreshing of the soul
with spiritual sweetness, consummating itself in holy and
ardent acts of love.14 The following words of St. Thomas, in
which he describes this effect of the Holy Eucharist, are of
stirring beauty and depth:
The love of God is never idle, for wherever it is, it does
great works. Consequently through this sacrament, as far as
it lies in its power, it not only bestows the habit of grace and
virtue, but also arouses us to act, according to 2 Cor. 5, 14:
"The charity of Christ presseth us.” Hence it is that the soul
is spiritually nourished through the power of this sacrament,
in so far as it is spiritually gladdened, and as it were inebriated
with the sweetness of the divine Goodness, according to Cant.
5, i : "Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly
beloved.”14

Only a soul can so write who has experienced in Holy
Communion the actual fervor of devotion,1’ the fire of love
perfecting itself in ardent acts of piety and devotion, who
has tasted from his own experience the blessedness and in­
effable happiness resulting from union with Jesus in Holy
Communion. This state of mind and feeling is expressed in

Charity

45

the hymn Adoro te devote, in which the Saint implores
and prays:
Panis vivus, vitam praestans homini,
Praesta meae menti de te vivere
Et te illi semper dulce sapere.
*
»
*
O living Bread, to mortals life supplying!
Make Thou my soul henceforth on Thee to live;
Ever a taste of heavenly sweetness give.

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The office of Corpus Christi, which St. Thomas wrote at
the request of Pope Urban IV, Breathes a very similar spirit,
and thus his name has always been connected with the
liturgy of the Eucharist.17 John of Colonna, O.P., in his
beautiful and profound poetry, says concerning this office:
“This blessed and holy Doctor composed the office of Corpus
Christi, which is recited and chanted more devoutly than
any other in the church.”18 For Thomas, rays of Christ’s love
for us and our love for Him are focused in the Most Holy
Eucharist. “The Eucharist is the sacrament which expresses
Christ’s love and causes our love.”19
The doctrine of Thomas on the Eucharist, as he portrayed
it in the Third Part of his Summa Theologica, near the close
of his life, blends the three forms of wisdom into a harmonious
union. In his expositions, both profound and clear, on transubstantiation, on the manner of Christ’s presence in the
Eucharist, and on the Eucharistic accidents, St. Thomas shows
himself' the master metaphysician even within the domain
of theology. By harmoniously uniting the writings and teach­
ings of the Fathers on the Most Holy Eucharist, and devel­
oping profound reasons of fitness, the Master of Dogma
comes to the fore. In the idea, which he derived from his
own innermost experience, on the fervor charitatis of the

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46

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Eucharist, on the supernatural refreshment flowing from this
active and inner., lo.ve,. and on the joy of soul resting upon
th£^eaiLi£IesusjilHoly„Comniunion, the mystical element
makes its appearance in this triad of wisdom.
The interior life of St. Thomas manifests an undeniable
attraction to the Holy Eucharist, without which consideration
we cannot Understand the inner depths of his soul. It is
especially here that the basic priestly character of his whole
being expresses itself. In the testimonies of his canonization
process, we have heard again and again the burning devotion
with which the saint celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass in the early hours of the morning, after which he
attended a second Mass in thanksgiving. We do not know
when or where St. Thomas was ordained a priest. History,
however, has preserved for us the fervor and devotion with
which he celebrated this most sublime function of the priestly
office and with which he made his thanksgiving after the
Holy Sacrifice. The daily celebration of the Mass presented
a strong incentive for striving after interior purity and
perfection. He insisted upon the obligation of priests to
strive after an eminent degree of moral purity and sanctity
because of the celebration of the Eucharistic banquet in
the words:

Since one is appointed to the most august ministry of serv­
ing Christ Himself in the sacrament of the altar through Holy
Orders, a greater inward holiness is required than that which
is needed for the religious state.20
Art has also strikingly portrayed St. Thomas’ intimate
connection with the theology, liturgy, and mysticism of the
Holy Eucharist. The monument of the saint at Toulouse in
St. Semin, which was destroyed during the French Revolu­
tion, acclaimed him as the Doctor Eucharisticus. Over the

Charity

47

tomb is enthroned a beautiful picture of the saint. He holds
the Holy Eucharist in one hand; in the other, a flaming sword.
Underneath, there is the verse:

Ex Evangelii solio cherubinus Aquinas
Vitalem ignito protegit ense cibum.
*
*
*
From the throne of the Gospel, Thomas, the Cherub,.
Protects the living bread with a fiery sword.

The dominant theme of this painting is Thomas, the Cheru­
bim of the Eucharistic mystery.
In S. Maria Novella at Florence, Orcagna’s painting rep­
resents St. Thomas at the altar celebrating Mass in ecstasy.21
In a painting by P; P. Rubens, which now is in the del Prado
Museum at Madrid, St. Thomas extols the Holy Eucharist
with a forceful gesture in the midst of the Fathers of the
Church.22 A procession moves before the artist. Gregory the
Great, Augustine, and Ambrose proceed in the front, while
Jerome and Bonaventure follow. St. Thomas, his countenance
glowing, is placed in the middle of the painting as the
principal figure. He holds a book in his right hand, and his
left hand is raised enthusiastically proclaiming the praise of
the Eucharist. At his left a nun holds with both her hands
a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament. Without a
doubt this mm is Juliana of Lüttich, who stimulated the first
move for the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi.
In poetry, Calderon, above all, has acclaimed St. Thomas
as the theologian and troubadour of the .Blessed.Sacrament.
In one of his most beautiful Autos sacramentales, "Holy
Parnassus," he represents the Church as lofty Parnassus, the
holy mountain of true poetry, where the faithful unite in
songs of praise around the Eucharistic Lord, the true divine

48

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Apollo. The Sibylls, types of heavenly poetry, summon the
doctors of the Church, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory,
and Thomas Aquinas to a lyrical contest in praise of the
Blessed Sacrament. In this poetic competition Thomas recites
his Pange Lingua. For this he receives, as a reward of
victory, the sun upon his breast, the radiant emblem of
enlightened wisdom and ardent love of God.
I am concluding these thoughts on charity, the second basic
trait in the portrait of St. Thomas* soul and character, with
the striking words of the Dominican, A. Touron, who has
written the most beautiful biography of our saint up to the
present time:

His words, perfectly conformed to his actions, make known
the purity of his soul and the extent of his charity. We reach
this conclusion by reading his works, principally those in which
he treats of matters concerning the inner life: the perfection
of the spiritual life, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the various
degrees of the moral virtues with the different ways of practic­
ing them, the excellence and the fruits of contemplation, the
eminence of charity, and all that occurs most intimately in the
holy communication of a saintly soul with God, its Father,
Friend, and Spouse. In these wonderful treatises, the saint
appears to depict himself, and to paint with true-to-Iife strokes
the very depths of his inner life. . . . His oldest biographer,
William of Tocco, has remarked that he did not dare to preach
what he himself had not first practiced. We should never doubt
that he had also experienced in die delights of prayer and in
the holy exercise of the Christian virtues all that he had taught
us in his writings. His doctrine, always pure, modest, and
characterized by all those traits that the Apostle James (3, 17)
attributes to wisdom coming from above, is itself a sure proof
that his heart participated as much as his intellect in all that
came from his pen to lead us to a knowledge of God and self.
In his works of piety St Thomas speaks of the great mystery
of the love which God has shown for us, either by uniting

»Jf *W."n**JB<

Charity
49
/
>
Himself to our nature to free us from our sins and to clothe
us with His justice, or By giving Himself entirely to us to he
our food, our consolation, and the token of our salvation. Now
we clearly understand that they are not only the result of a
lofty and fruitful intellect shedding light for our instruction,
hut also the holy effusion of a soul perfectly united to God,
permitting some, sparks of love with which it is inflamed to
shine forth. We feel that his every word is the overflow of his
heart which, in turn, imparts light and unction to them. Every
stroke of his pen, as well as every action of his life, proceeds
from the principle that made him write or act, and from the
goal which he proposed for himself in all things — I refer to that
pure love of God which animated his heart and directed his
hand, as well as the ardent desire which he always had to live
only according to the spirit of Jesus Christ.23

Chapter III

PEACE

X HE third feature of the soul and character of St. Thomas
is peace—quiet, balance, harmony of soul — which flows
naturally from wisdom and charity.
This peace gleams before us pure and tender as a reflection
of the eternal peace of heaven, in which order and harmony
of soul are brought about and strengthened by faith and
reason, charity and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Fra Angelico
da Fiesole, who because of his angelic purity and gentle,
kind disposition was like Thomas, understood this peace so
as to portray it in his pictures which he painted of the greatest
theologian of his Order.
Peace is a fruit, an effect of charity—love of God and
neighbor. The brighter and more intensely this charity be­
comes, the more profound and pure the peace.1 In the
marvelous system of speculative theology, the beatitude which
praises the peacemakers corresponds to the gift of wisdom:
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God.”2
Pgace, the motto of the Order of St. Benedict, reveals a
plenitude of inner happiness and heavenly peace known to
God alone. St. Thomas breathed deeply of this peace of St.

387408
3enedict,during-his-vears-Q£_childhQQd on the holy heights
of Monte Cassino, where one feels much nearer to heaven.
Such contemporary Dominicans as Mandonnet, Petitot, and
Gigon3 maintain that St. Thomas was an oblate of the Bene­
dictine Order, and wore the habit of St. Benedict. Had his
father not removed him from the cloister Cnot in 1235 nor
1236, but perhaps first in 12.37) in fear of a threatening
war, he eventually would have belonged to the Benedictine
Order.
We can perceive a Benedictine trait in his life and writings,
even though he belonged to the Dominican Order. Providence
had determined that in Naples Thomas would dedicate his
whole life to the Order of St. Dominic, and that he would
remain steadfast in his vocation despite the objections, and
obstacles raised by his family. Hekeenly-understood_and_was
deeply enkindled by the noble ideal of this Order—the Order
of Truth, which soon would assume the leading role in the
flowering of Scholasticism through his influence. Nevertheless,
the Order of St. Benedict feels itself drawn in a spirit of
appreciation toward the Angel of the Schools. (Such senti­
ments are again apparent at this time.) In Thomas, veritas
and pax, the watchwords of the Dominicans and the Bene­
dictines chime in harmony: "Veritas et pax osculatae sunt —
Truth and peace embrace.”
The English Benedictine, R. B. Vaughan, in his huge
biography of St. Thomas, points out that the spirit and effects
of St. Thomas can never be fully understood without the
mystical spirit of the Patriarch of the occidental monks —
a spirit of meekness, kindness, and quiet, which the boy
Thomas acquired in the metropolis of Benediptin.tsm.5.
Pax est tranquillitas ordinis—peace is |he JmmpiilUty-rês'ulb
ing from order. This thought of St. Augustine is-fully realized

/

52

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

in the interior life of St. Thomas. An incomparable order and
harmony prevail primarily in his thought and outlook. Just
as obscurity, uncertainty, and confusion of ideas cause rest­
lessness and disquietude to overflow into the whole life of
the soul, so, too, a clear, profound, and ordered knowledge
of natural and supernatural truth with its principles and rela­
tions, in its multiplicity and unity, diffuses a pure, intellectual
peace into the soul seeking after truth. The Dominican, B.
Allo, in a panegyric honoring St. Thomas, has characterized
the individuality of Thomas’ soul in the words: "La paix
dans la vérité."6
The function of the wise man, as St. Thomas points out,
is to order—to gain an ordered knowledge of truth, ruled and
guided by the highest principles and views. He must first
discover and establish the natural order in the realm of
logical thought, of real being, and of moral acts. Then he
must superimpose the supernatural order of the intimate life
of God in His revelation, brought about through Jesus Christ
and bestowed upon rational creatures, who are elevated by
grace to a participation of this divine life.
Here I cannot pursue any further how, in the system of
St. Thomas, order, symmetry, peace, and temper of truth and
clarity are manifested in every single detail: in his formal
exposition, in his ability to grasp and harmonize the most
diverse opinions. Faith and reason, philosophy and theology,
nature and grace, universalism and individualism, analysis and
synthesis, Augustinian spiritualism and Aristotelian realism—
these and other conceptual antipodes, which have been
distorted even within Scholasticism into various extremes and
Contradictions,.have found a peaceful and harmonious symrftetry in thé •tfiôùghtôf St. Thomas.
' • ;This balance,, moderation, and clarity of judgment, this

Peace

53

sense of finality and order are evidenced in a very -striking
and beneficial manner in the social and political teaching of
St. Thomas, which certainly breathes the spirit of peace.8
The same agreement and harmony also make their appearance
in his use of sourcêsTWith clear vision he has discerned the
~pith"ôf'truth under the bark of error, and has indicated the
historical growth of philosophical and theological questions,
gazing far beyond the scientific range of ideas proper to his
time. With grateful appreciation he has utilized the results
thought out in previous ages, readily recognizing the indirect
service afforded by false opinions for the discovery of truth:
When considering truth, we are aided by others in a two­
fold manner: directly and indirectly. We are helped directly
by those who have found the truth, for, as has been said, when
one has discovered the truth, gathering it into a unit, he
bequeathes to posterity a great knowledge of truth. We are
helped indirectly in so far as those who have previously erred
concerning truth thereby furnish to posterity a stimulus for
philosophizing, so that the truth may stand out more clearly
after diligent discussion.8
A high degree of scholarly and well-balanced impartiality
and prudence, a peaceful blending of piety and a criticism
which is reasonable, objective, and occasionally even historical,
is shown in the manner in which St. Thomas individually
utilized and evaluated Aristotle and his Greek commentators,
Arabian-Jewish philosophy, Neo-Platonic sources, Augustine
and the Fathers of the Church, the works of the early Scholas­
tics and those either immediately preceding or contemporary.
The more one examines and learns to appreciate the delicate
and sensitive manner in which the saint wove together the
varicolored threads of earlier elements of thought into a
unified and brilliant tapestry in each and every question, as

L·'
/

54

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

in epistemology and psychology, metaphysics and theodicy,
ethics and mysticism, and the basis of sacramental theology,
the more he will recognize and appraise the masterful intel­
lectual work which Thomas has accomplished in completing
and harmoniously forming this vast structure of thought. Here I cannot examine the way in which he used Aristotle and
Augustine, nor his synthesis of Aristotle and Augustine,
in which Hamack sees the world-wide importance of
St. Thomas.®
St. Thomas’ use of sources is neither a compilation and
mechanical collection of various opinions and trends of
thought, nor a weak eclecticism; rather it is his own penetra­
tion, formation, and furthering of the results of investigations
made at his time. Thomas assimilated and evaluated this
vast amount of scientific tradition in the service of truth —
that truth which he had always before him: “The study of
philosophy is not to know what men have thought, but what
the truth of things is in itself.”10 The independent organ­
izing and speculative genius of St. Thomas, which directed
all known truth into unison, was the entelechy, the form
assimilating, fashioning, and certifying extraneous elements
of thought.
The French scholar, P. Duhem, otherwise so noted for his
historical scholastic research, especially in the field of natural
science, is far from the truth when he denies in large part
St. Thomas’ own proper importance in philosophical
thought.11 We now see more dearly in the light of laborious
manuscript research that the heated strife about his doctrine,
which had been enkindled even during the lifetime of the
great scholastic and which burst into flame after his death,
began with the acceptance of the Christian Aristotelianism

Peace

55

of St Thomas as an independent achievement of the widest
innovation.12 R. Seeberg writes:

There is no question that Thomas was the most modem
of the theologians of his time, for he sought, so far as that
was possible, to apply the thoughts of Aristotle, which filled
his theology. . . . Thomas had a special aptitude for this type
of work. How easily he knows how to condense the most com­
plicated trains of thought into neat and simple forms. He was
always able to coin the precise expression, for he was keen and
clear, equipped with a sure insight for essentials, and had a
marvelous dialectical ability. Consequently he was the proper
person to effect securely and tactfully the very difficult com­
bination of the teachings of the Fathers and the Aristotelian
philosophy, to translate Augustine into Aristotelianism, and to
borrow from Aristotle whatever the teaching of the Fathers
did not directly oppose.13

Things new and progressive do not stand out discordantly
or shockingly in St. Thomas’ works, and when such doctrines
are advanced, never or seldom does he make mention of their
newness. His novel course follows, in large part, the middle
path, refraining from extremes. The peace of a soul who
seeks not self, but only the truth, and ultimately God, the
Eternal Truth, is diffused throughout the intellectual labors
ofThomas.
The authority of the Church, to which Thomas was devoted
with a childlike love, did not present an obstacle nor a
hindrance to his progressive scientific endeavors. Rather he
saw and loved in the Church, in its doctrinal authority, tradi­
tion, liturgy, and practices, a God-given assurance of a certain
knowledge of truth. He pierced incomparably deep into the
inner nature of the Church, and united the dogmatic and
mystical, the ethical and juridical elements into a harmonious

’ SsenW lSÊBiF

56

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

concept of the Church.14 The Church has, as he relates, the
good of the faithful in mind in all its decisions and instruc­
tions.18 He makes known his great esteem for the authority
of the Church when he writes: “The practice of the Church,
which should be observed always and in all instances, has the
greatest authority.” Even the doctrine of the Fathers receives
its authority from the Church: “Therefore it is better to adhere
to the practice of the Church rather than to the authority of
an Augustine, à Jerome, or of any other doctor.”16
He shows the highest esteem and reverence toward the
primacy of the Pope. This primacy he derived dogmatically
from the Pauline idea of Christ, the Head of the Church,
and from the nature and end of the Church. (Thomas was
personally acquainted with the popes of his time, namely
with Urban IV, Clement TV, and Gregory X.)
St. Thomas is filled with the greatest piety toward the
Fathers of the Cfiurch. Even where heTelieveTanother opin-,
ion must be held, he chooses a form and manner in which
there is no hint of blame or reproach. Thus in one place
he writes: "Since this opinion was held by great doctors,
namely Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, and certain others, it should
riot be rejected as erroneous.”17 Cardinal Cajetan likewise
mentioned this reverent, conciliatory attitude of Aquinas
toward the Fathers: “Since die author had the greatest veneration for them, he was endowed, in a certain manner, with
the intellectual acumen of them all.”16
'
The impressive portrait of Fr. Zurbaran, the apotheosis of
St. Thomas, now preserved in the museum at Seville, is, in
a certain sense, an artistic commentary on this idea.16 St.
Thomas is standing in the middle upper portion of this
magnificent painting. He is enlightened by the Holy Spirit,
who hovers over him in the form of a dove. In his left hand

ΐΟίΰΜΜΜΒΒ

Peace

57

he holds an opened book; the uplifted right hand holds
a quill—he is prepared to write. The four great Doctors of
the Western Church, Augustine, Gregory, Ambrose, and
Jerome, sit at his left and right with their books before them.
They are busily engaged in conversation.
Thus the peaceful spirit of order, harmony, and balance
is diffused throughout the writings of St. Thomas. This sense
for mediating and harmonizing, this rhythm, if I dare say so,
of truth and clarity appears in his weighty treatment of
problems as well as in his use of sources. Joy and peace will
overflow into the soul of him who has been impregnated land
quickened, through years of study, by this ' harmony and
proportion of the Thomistic structure. A joy and peace will
come to him, similar to that reverential feeling which en­
raptures us when we behold the towering cathedrals with
which the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas is frequently
compared because of its architectonic form.20
This same balance, prudent and moderate method, peace:
and clarity of the Thomistic system manifest themselves most
effectively in his exposition of Christian morals, ascetics, and
mysticism in the Second Part, an exposition extolled by his
admiring contemporaries. Charity, according to the words of
St. Bernard, modus diligendi Deum est sine modo diligere
(knowing neither bounds nor limits), confers, as the form
of the virtues, measure and agreement to all the moral virtues.
It tends to behold lovingly in God the harmony and unison
of the divine perfections, and to build and model our interior
and exterior life in accordance with them. The moral virtues,
informed by charity, order and quiet the inner movements
and passions of the soul, so that the soul, undisturbed and
undivided, can adhere to God in a life of a more ardent and
increasing love. Even the desire for knowledge, which cu-

58

Peace

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

portrayed in art. Its memory lives on in a Church confraternity,
the Angelic Warfare, which pays special honor to St. Thomas
as patron and model of moral purity and innocence.25 The
title "Angelic Doctor” which was bestowed on St. Thomas
at a somewhat later period because of his angelic purity (qua
in came praeter camem vixit—while living in the flesh, he
was not of the flesh), has surpassed his original scholastic
name of honor, “Common Doctor.”
.
Thomas had such an esteem for the virtues of chastity^
and virginity, because he saw in them a very special fitness I
for an exclusive dedication and consecration to God, for a /
total unfolding and exercise of wisdom and charity. Thiy
dominating thought appears again and again in the beautiful
questions and articles which he has dedicated to this angelic
virtue.28 The Pauline thought: “The virgin thinks about the
things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit”
(1 Cor. 7:34) has found a most profound interpreter in
Thomas, who wrote from his own innermost experience. Like­
wise his devotion to St. Agnes, whose relic he always carried
with him, can only be understood in terms of his love for
chastity and virginity. Twice she is mentioned in his writings:
as a model of chastity in the most difficult dangers of preserv­
ing virginity;22 and as a martyr of chastity.28
For centuries, numerous devotees of St. Thomas, who have
been inspired by his exalted example, have seen and tasted
how sweet the Lord is in a life, pure, virginal, wholly dedicated
to God. In connection with spotless chastity and virginity,
we have noticed in the testimonies of the canonization process
the moderation anti mnrrificajjgn_nf the saint regarding food
and drink, his vigils, and, in general, his indifference to the
pleasure and comforts of the body, because of his pure love
of God and inclination toward the contemplative life. St.

!

riosity, a vice thwarting higher achievements, can perver
must be ordered and moderated by the virtue of studiousness/1
The arrangement and mutual order of all the virtues a
treated in Thomistic morals show a great deal of wisdom anc
everyday experience. The asceticism and mysticism of St
Thomas vividly show the way in which the life of grace
assimilates the principles of the human life of the soul and
gently elevates the whole sensitive and intellectual man to
, the supernatural, divine life.22 Fr. Raymond Martin, O.P.,
remarks that he has never found the mystical doctrine more
humanly and at the same time more divinely presented than
in the teaching of St. Thomas on the spiritual life.23
St. Thomas was able to present such an effective teaching
on the virtues—a doctrine replete with harmony and balance,
ruled and sustained by the one important consideration of
love, over which hovers an ardent and holy peace—because
this same harmony, balance, and proportion oF the virtues
flowing from the gentle streams of divine love governed his
own soul, because such a peace, springing from wisdom and
charity, illumined all his thoughts, desires, feelings, and
actions. The modest reports of the witnesses at the canoniza­
tion process have let us glance into this pure and holy soul,
freed from inordinate movements of sense, from attachment
to earthly goods, and from the desire of honors and sensuality.
His spotless, virginal purity is praised in all these testimonies.
The expression virgo recurs again and again.
The acts of the canonization process and his first biography
by William of Tocco record the mystical experience of young
Thomas in the tower of S. Giovanni when he was girded by
angels following the conquest of a most trying temptation.
Thereafter he never experienced the movements of sensual­
ity.** Since Fra Angelico da Fiesole this scene has often been
’

59

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Thomas likewise brings out, in his opusculum De Perfectione
Vitae Spiritualis, that those who wish to lead a pure, virginal
life, in which they can more freely and perfectly dedicate
themseIves and clmg to Gôd,"musf chastise their body by
fasts, vigils, and similar practices.28
The desires of the flesh are tamed and brought to rest
through chastity and virginity, through an abstemious, austere,
» and mortified life, and all the pleasures of sense are willingly
sacrificed for a more facile operation of the intellectual and
spiritual life. At the same time, humility and its related virtues
of obedience, meekness, kindness, and Christian demeanor, of
amiability and friendliness, of an unselfish courtesy, bring to
rest the inner concupiscences of the soul which spring from
inordinate self-love, self-seeking, and the desire of honors, and,
motivated by the supernatural power of charity, subordinate
the whole spiritual life to God and His service. Thus man
feels and finds himself fortunately in the position which is
his according to the will of God and which circumstances
and authority show him. He experiences in his soul the truth
of our Lord’s words: “Leam of me for I am meek and humble
of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls” (Matt, r r tap).
We have heard how humility, meekness, obedience, and the
friendly, warm, serene, and willing disposition of our saint
were praised in the testimonies of the canonization process.
The biography of William of Tocco also strikingly portrays
the beautiful traits which humanly introduce Thomas to us
as a humble, modest, peaceful, and impartial thinker, master­
ing all anxiety even in the face of disappointment and opposi­
tion. He remained clear and well balanced, at all times an
amiable and self-sacrificing saint and scholar. He saw in
pride and arrogance an impediment to a profound grasp of
truth, while in humility he beheld an aid and advancement

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to true wisdom. Thus, he could confess to his inseparable
friend and companion, Reginald of Pipemo, in all simplicity
and uprightness of heart:

1 give thanks to God that I have never been moved by vain
glory in regard to my knowledge, my master's chair, and my
public disputations. . . . And even though I had temptations
to vain glory, I repressed them by a subsequent judgment
of reason.
The testimonies of the canonization process and the canoniza­
tion bull of John XXII proudly state that Thomas maintained
a complete equilibrium of soul, never making use of proud
or offending words during the disputations into which much
excitement and haughty, proud manners frequently made
their way. Bartholomew of Capua bears witness in his
testimony at the process of canonization that he had heard
from trustworthy Friars Preachers how Thomas, when
vehemently attacked during a disputation at Paris by the
Franciscan theologian and later Archbishop of Canterbury,
John Peckham, did not lose his self-control through proud
and injurious expressions. JRather he quietly and impartially
expounded his'thesis and answered in a loving and humble
manner.30 John Peckham, who wrote about this incident in
an entirely different manner in a letter dated June t, 1285,
to the Bishop of Lincoln, cannot help but designate Thomas
as the Doctor humilis.*1
Thomas also constantly remained modest and kind in his
scholastic polemics, always considerate of his learned opponents.32 Other scholastics of his time, I mention only Roger
Bacon, Peter of Trabes, Peter John Olivus, have frequently
let themselves be overpowered by sharp language in scholastic
encounters.

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Pope Benedict XIV notes this peculiarity of St. Thomas’
polemics:
St. Thomas Aquinas, angelic leader of the Schools and
Doctor of the Church, in writing so many volumes which can
never be sufficiently praised, necessarily offended various opin­
ions of philosophers and theologians which truth compelled him
to refute. But what most admirably crowns the merits of this
Doctor is that he never minimized, railed, or dishonored his
opponents, but endeared all by his courtesy and friendliness.
If he saw something in their writings rather harsh, ambiguous,
and obscure, he explained and toned it down by a benign and
lenient interpretation. If, however, for the sake of religion
and faith, he was required to reject and refute their opinions,
this he did with such modesty that he deserves as much praise
for disagreeing as for asserting Catholic truth.33
Only in the work De Unitate Intellectus Contra Averroistas,
written against Latin Averroism at the University of Paris
and its leader, the shrewd philosopher, Siger of Brabant, does
Thomas express himself in a harsh manner against Averroes,
whom he calls the depravator and not the commentator of
Aristotle. He also opposes the Parisian Averroists, to whom he
addresses the following rebuke near the close of his work:

These things, therefore, we wrote to destroy the error (Averroistic Monopsychism) which is based not on the documents
of faith, but on the thoughts and principles of the philosophers.
If someone, glorying under the name of false science, wishes
to say something against what we have written, let him speak
not in some comer nor before children who are unable to judge
in these difficult matters. Rather let him, if he so dares, write
against this our tract Then he will find not only myself, the
least of them all, but many others, cultivators of truth, who
can resist his error or counsel his ignorance.
I have discovered in a Munich manuscript the commentary

Peace ‘
63
of Siger of Brabant on a large portion of the Aristotelian

.

works (Clm. 9559). Fr. Van Steenberghen, who, with his stu- ;
dents, has prepared a standard edition of these questions on
Aristotle, has given a very realistic picture of the philosophical
doctrine and even the errors of this leader of Latin Averroism,
or better, heterodoxical Aristotelianism. He has also furnished,
from the commentary on the De Anima, contained in this
manuscript, the convincing proof of my opinion that Siger
of Brabant had taken a different scientific position due to
the weight of the proofs set forth in the work De Unitate Intellectus, and gave up the Averroistic Monopsychism which
he previously held. We will not go far astray if we see in the
humble, objective, and tender disposition of St. Thomas a reason for this intellectual realization and conversion.
This harmony, balance, divine peace of the interior and
exterior life of St. Thomas manifests itself in his prayer.34
In the prayer after Holy Communion, the saint tenderly .
implores that the sacramental union with the Body and
Blood of our Saviour may be for him:

The extinction of vices, evil desires and concupiscences; an
increase of charity and patience, of humility and obedience ...
the perfect quieting of all the inclinations of the body as well
as of the soul. May it closely unite me to Thee the true and
one God, and happily establish me at the end of my life in
unchangeable bliss.

In other prayers of his which we have, this longing after
va peaceful and harmoniously ordered inner life, clinging
totally to God, manifests itself to us. In the prayer beginning
Concede mïhi, misericors Deus, which the Angelic Doctor was
daily accustomed to recite before the image of the Crucified
for à prudent ordering and formation of his life, he directed
the following intimate plea to God:

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Grant, O Lord my God, that I may not fail in prosperity or
adversity, avoiding pride in the former and discouragement in
the latter. May I rejoice in nothing but what leads to Thee,
_ and grieve for nothing but what turns away from Thee. May
I despise, O Lord, all transitory things, and prize only that
which is eternal. May I shun any joy that is not Thee; may I
wish for nothing outside of Thee. ... Grant me, O my God,
to direct my heart toward Thee, constantly to grieve for my
sins, and to amend my life. Make me, O Lord, my God,
obedient without contradiction, poor without depression, chaste
without corruption, patient without murmuring, humble with­
out pretense, cheerful without dissipation . . . serious without
constraint, prompt without levity, God-fearing without pre­
sumption, truthful without ambiguity, eager in good works
without arrogance, correcting my neighbor without haughtiness
and edifying him by work and example without hypocrisy.
Give me, O Lord God, a watchful heart, which no curious
thought will turn away from Thee; a noble heart, which no
unworthy affection will drag down; a righteous heart, which
no irregular intention will turn aside; a firm heart, which
no tribulation will crush; a free heart, which no violent affec­
tion will claim for its own.
His prayer for the attainment of all the virtues proceeds
according to a similar train of thought. From it I will ex­
tract only one petition, which permits us to recognize his
noble, considerate disposition. He prays that he may:

Be troublesome to no one in bodily cares.
His prayer to the most blessed Virgin Mary is very beauti­
ful. From this I would like to take a few thoughts. The
saint begins:

Dearest and most blessed Virgin Mary, gracious Mother of
God, Daughter of the Sovereign King, Queen of the Angels,
Mother of Him Who created all things, I commend to the
bosom of thy mercy this day and all the days of my life, my

Peace

65

soul, and my body, all my actions, thoughts, wishes, desires,
words and deeds, my whole life and the end , thereof, so that
through thy prayers all may be ordered according to the will
of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The saint then implores Mary’s intercession for the in­
dividual attainment of all graces and virtues, which are
necessary for him for a holy life in the religious state:
Deign to implore for me from thy beloved Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, sufficient grace that I may energetically resist the i
temptations of the world, of the flesh, and of the evil spirit.
I firmly resolve not to commit sin in the future and to persevere
in thy service and in that of thy beloved Son. Most blessed
Lady, I beseech thee to obtain for me perfect obedience and
true humility of heart, so that I may truly acknowledge myself
as a worthless creature and wretched sinner, unable to do any
good work, or resist temptations without the grace and help
of my Creator and of thy holy prayers. Procure for me also
through thy prayers, O my dearest Lady, perpetual chastity
of mind and body, enable me to serve thy beloved Son and
thee with a pure heart and chaste body. Obtain for me from
Him the grace to accept voluntary poverty with patience
and serenity of mind, that I may be able to endure the burdens
of this Order and work out my salvation and that of my
fellowmen. Obtain for me also, O my sweetest Lady, real
charity that I may love thy most holy Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, with all my heart, and next to Him, my neighbor in
God and for God, and so enjoy what is good and be grieved
at what is evil; grant that I may disregard no one, judge no
one unkindly, nor prefer myself to anyone.

Thus the interior and exterior life of St. Thomas bears
the imprint of harmony, symmetry, and balance. L. Lavaud,”
who has given such an excellent analysis of the sanctity of
Aquinas, remarks that the moral virtues, poverty, chastity,
obedience, and humility standing in the service of charity,

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

. disposed the saint for the contemplative life of divine love
and wisdom. The state of original justice, order, and peace
of the faculties and activities of the soul were, in a certain
manner, restored in his soul. All the noblest virtues were sub­
ordinated to divine love, and all the noblest gifts of the Holy
Spirit were subordinated to the gift of wisdom in his life as
> also in his teaching.
’ This harmony, symmetry, order of the interior and ex­
terior life, this multiplicity of virtues within the unity of
love, enlightened by the light of reason, of faith, and of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, give to the soul of St. Thomas a
spiritual, Godlike beauty. In one place he has defined spiritual
and intellectual beauty: Pulchritudo spiritualis animae in hoc
consistit, quod conversatio sive actio hominis sit hene proportionata secundum spiritualem rationis claritatem (S.Th. II—II,
q. 145, a. 2). The intellectual and supernatural beauty of the
soul is seen in the fine proportion of life and action, which
reveal harmony and symmetry in conformity with the clarity
of the intellect supematurally enlightened through faith.
With this, St. Thomas has, in a certain sense, defined his
own inner life.
Just as the beauty of the heavens and the splendor of the
sun are reflected by a quiet flowing brook and also penetrate
within — so something of the uncreated beauty of God js
reflected toward us from the interior life of St. Thomas,
who in the contemplation of God found the beatitude of his
life.

Partili
CHRIST AND THE INTERIOR LIFE
OF ST. THOMAS

i^ToW we plainly see from the acts of the canonization
process as well as from his writings how wisdom, charity,
and peace stand out as the basic features of St. Thomas’ soul.
From this portrait of his soul and character radiates the
meek and peaceful splendor of his wisdom, love, and peace
in Christ Tesus in all its fulInessfWe can thoroughly understand the interior life of St. Thomas, like that of any other
saint, only when we see thjsjnner life and love related to
Christ.
William of Tocco has embodied in his biography of St.
Thomas the well-known account of the saint’s mystical experi­
ence in the chapel of St. Nicholas, in the Dominican Church,
S. Domenico Maggiore at Naples.1 The sacristan, a layBrother, Dominic of Caserta, beheld St. Thomas in ecstasy
before the image of the Crucified. He heard the words from
the mouth of the age-old crucifix: “You have written well of
me, Thomas; what reward do you wish for your labors?” He
then heard the reply: “Nothing less than you, O Lord,” come
from the lips of the saint Thereupon, William of Tocco re­
marks, St. Thomas wrote the third part of his Summa which
treats of the passion and resurrection of Christ1
67

68

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

Art has frequently portrayed this scene of Christian mysti­
cism. We see it at the Vatican art gallery in a portrait by
the Sienese painter, Stefano de Giovanni, known as Sassetta;
in an altar painting hy the Spanish artist, Berreguete,3 ex­
hibited in the Prado Museum at Madrid; lastly in the cycle of
mural paintings on the life of St. Thomas in the Dominican
Church at Regensburg, publicized and explained by J. A.
Endres.4 The latest and most impressive portrayal of this
vision is the beautiful painting by Martin Feuerstein.
Christis, for Thomas, the origin and sum total of all wis­
dom. None of the great theologians of the Middle Ages has
Written more profoundly than Thomas on either the infinite
divine wisdom of the Eternal Word or on the wisdom of
Christ’s human soul hypostatically united to the Logos. The
zi 6th chapter of his Compendium Theologiae, “The Pleni­
tude of Christ’s Wisdom,” condenses with inimitable clarity
and profundity into one lucid presentation whatever the great
theologian has detailed in his larger works on Christology.
In the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, St. Thomas sees and
admires the greatest act of God’s wisdom. He seeks with
all the power of his mind and all the love of his heart to
penetrate into the theology of this mystery. Whatever he has
written on the purposefulness of the Incarnation in both his
Summae is both speculative and contemplative, scholastic and
mystic. In the fourth book of the Summa contra Gentiles,
the fifty-third chapter, the saint begins his masterful pres­
entation with words written from his own intimate experience:
'

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If anyone would diligently and piously consider the mysteries
of the Incarnation, he would find such a profundity of wisdom
that it would exceed all human knowledge, according to the
words of the Apostle: "The foolishness of God is wiser than
men.” Wherefore the wonderful meaning Crationes) of this

Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

69

mystery is manifested more and more to him who piously
ponders it.

For St. Thomas, Christ is the source of all wisdom. Union
with Christ permits us to participate in His wisdom and makes
us truly wise. In his explanation of the passage “. . . of Christ
Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge,” Col. 2:3, Thomas draws this practical conclusion:
Therefore we must seek wisdom nowhere else except in
Christ . . . just as he who had a book which contained wisdom
would not seek to know anything except this book. Thus we
should never seek anything more than Christ.5

As much as Thomas treasured the profane natural sciences
so as to devote a large part of his literary activity to explaining
Aristotle’s writings, and as little as he shared in the harsh atti­
tude of earlier and contemporary theologians, narrow-minded
and fearful of philosophy and human knowledge’—he nevertheless placed truth jev£aIed_ta_us.-in_Chiist_far_above_all—;
this human science and wisdoin. He writes at the beginning of
his explanation to the Creed: “Despite all their efforts, none
of the philosophers before Christ could have known about
God and the truths necessary for eternal life so much as a
simple woman knows through faith after the advent of
Christ.” In a sermon which he delivered about the year 1270
at the University of Paris/ he expressed himself in much the
same way: “A simple woman now knows more about the
truths of faith than all philosophers will ever know.”
To be immersed in the humanity of Jesus Christ is the
way which leads to a knowledge of His divinity. The Augustinian thought—through Christ the man to Christ the God8
— also vividly appears in Thomas. In his Compendium Theo­
logiae he writes these striking words: “The humanity of Christ

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

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is the way by which we come to die divinity.”9 This is the
basic idea of Christian mysticism. Henry Suso, for example,
in his Book of Wisdom places on thé lips of the Eternal
Wisdom the words: "If you wish to behold me in my eternal
divinity, you must leam to know and love me in my suffering
humanity.”10 The Benedictine mystic from Bavaria, John of
Castel,11 always faithful to Thomas, thoroughly understood,
felt, and developed in his book De adhaerendo Deo—and
even more beautifully and profoundly in the yet unpublished
work De Lumine Increato—this thought: that the created
light of Christ’s humanity ought to lead us, detached-as_far_as
possibleTrom earthly affections, to the very heights of human
love and experience, the contemplation of the uncreated light
of the divinity.
The Cross of our Saviour is for Thomas the unique source
of wisdom and the hearth of his glowing love of God and
Christ. Thus we come naturally to the consideration of the
second basic feature in the interior life of St. Thomas, to
charity with its devotedness to Christ. Here knowledge and
love unite most intimately. A. Touron, O.P., remarks so
beautifully:
The Cross of the Saviour was his first book, the great object
of his meditations, the rule of his whole life. At the feèt of
the Cross he humbled his spirit to merit an understanding of
the mysteries of faith; he purified his heart to render himself
capable of receiving it There he learned the secret of
penetrating into truth by way of charity, and of basing all his
knowledge on that of Jesus Christ, of himself, and of his
salvation. There those untimely distractions, which so often
make us sigh ... almost never interrupted this happy inter­
course where his heart unfolded itself in thanksgiving, and
his soul, always attentive to the voice of God, listened in silence
to what the Eternal Word wished to make known to him.

Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

γι

This eternal wisdom that the Apostle learned in the third
heaven, the beloved disciple on the breast of the Saviour, and >.
St. Augustine in Holy Writ, St Thomas learned at the feet
of the crucifix. The wounds of Jesus Christ were the masters
whom he consulted iiTTis jddùbtsZàhdTo3vhom,.he„listened
in his difficulties. . . . From_this_source_he-drew~the-principles of his science, the abundance_andj>urity of his doctrine.12

In the Cross St. Thomas beheld “the perfection of the whole
law, and the complete art of living well.”13
Reflection on the mysteries and ^eeds of the most sacred
humanity of Jesus Christ awakens devotion and inflames love.
This reflection on the divinity and whatever pertains to it,
the Angelic Doctor brings out, is in itself most fit to enkindle
our charity and arouse our devotion, since God, in truth,
must be loved above all. However, because of our weakness
of spirit, we need support and direction from objects ap-.
pealing to the senses for our love of God just as we do for
our knowledge of God. Thus the humanity of Jesus Christ
takes the first place in our consideration, as is mentioned in
the preface for Christmas: "Ut dum visibiliter Deum cognosci­
mus per hunc in invisibilium amorem rapiamur—So that
while we acknowledge God in visible form, we may through
Him be drawn to the love of things invisible.” Whatever
therefore immediately refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ
is especially fit to lead us, as it were, by the hand to interior
devotion and charity. Nevertheless, the primary object of our
devotion remains the divinity itself.14
From his immersion into the most holy life of Jesus Christ,
St. Thomas also assimilated that peace of soul, which from
the imitation of Christ springs into a harmonious practice
of the Christian virtues, wanned and enlightened by charity.
A priceless treasure of thought on the incomparably sublime

72

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II

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

and ineffably beautiful example of virtue in. the God-man,
and on the practical imitation of Christ, lies hidden in his
commentaries on the Scriptures, and in his profound questions
in the third part of the Summa, which treat of the mysteries of
the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. The medi­
tative and contemplative insight of the saint is focused upon
the minutest detail as well as upon the whole of our Saviour’s
exterior and interior life. It finds particular joy in the harmony
of this most sacred inner life, in which no sounds of discord
can be heard.
Omnis Christi actio nostra est instructio —every action of
Christ is a lesson for us. This thought frequently recurs in
St. Thomas. In the divine work of Christ he perceives the
exemplar of the effects of divine grace in us. The activity
of the most sacred bumanity .shows us how we should cooperate_with_the grace of God.15 The saint places special stress
upon both the example and the imitation of the obedience
of Christ, who died for us out of love and obedience to His
heavenly Father.

In this [Christ] gave an example — that just as He renounced
His human will by submitting it to the divine, so we also
should submit our will totally to God and to men who are
placed over us as God’s ministers.15
His exposition of the virtuous life of Christ reveals the
precision of His basic dogmatic thoughts. The dogma of the
hypostatic union, grasped so profoundly by Thomas, appears
in the psychology of Jesus Christ, as he paints it with the
colors of Holy Writ and the Fathers. The fanciful imagination,
which in the mysticism of the Bonaventurian school has
created the meditations on Christ’s life by John of Caulas,

Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

never or very seldom comes into play in Aquinas’ portrait
of Christ.
The deep and pious disposition of the saint comes to the
fore in a very attractive manner in some of his smaller works
where he depicts the divine Saviour as the model of virtue.
From these we sense what the saint has thought and felt about
Christ in his studies, meditations, and prayers—what he drew
from them to fashion his own interior life. I believe that a
few texts from St. Thomas’ mysticism on Christ and His
passion will also introduce us into the dispositions and feel*,
ings of his inner life, so completely imbued with Christ.1’
In his comprehensive exposition on the Creed, Thomas ex­
plains for our everyday life the significance of each article of
faith. From the doctrine of faith that the only-begotten Word
is of the same nature with the Father, he deduces the practical
conclusions "ad consolationem nostram — for our consolation,"
as he expresses it:
If the Word of God is the Son of God, and all the words
of God have a certain likeness to this Word, we first ought
to hear gladly the words of God . . . to believe the words of
God ... to meditate constantly upon the word of God . . .
to communicate the word of God to others by admonishing,
preaching, and enkindling . . . and to put the word of God
into practice.

From the Incarnation of the Son of God: "homo factus
est—He became man,” the holy Doctor likewise offers some
practical applications for our learning:
From these mysteries our faith is confirmed, our hope
elevated, our charity inflamed. We are incited to keep our
love pure by thoughts on the dignity bestowed upon human
nature from the Incarnation. By meditating upon the Incarna-

74

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

, tion of the Son of God, we are eventually filled with a holy
' desire to belong to Christ.
The treatise on Christ as the model of virtue in His passion
and death is exceptionally beautiful:

For if you seek an example of charity, greater charity no
man has than that he give up his life for his friends—and
this Christ did upon the Cross. So if He gave His life for
us, it should not be difficult for us to suffer many hardships
for Him. . . . If you seek an example of patience, the most
excellent is found upon the Cross where Jesus freely under­
went the greatest sufferings with the most heroic patience. . . .
If you seek an example of humility, behold the Crucified, for
God desired to be condemned and die under Pontius Pilate—
the Lord for the servant, the life of the Angels for man. ...
If you seek an example of obedience, follow Him Who was
obedient to the Father even unto death. ... If you seek an
example of despising earthly goods, follow Him Who is King
of kings, Lord of lords, in Whom are all the treasures of
wisdom. Upon the Cross, however, He was naked, mocked,
spat upon, scourged, crowned with thorns, given vinegar and ■
gall to drink, and crucified. Do not therefore become too much
attached to clothing or to riches, for they have divided my
vesture among themselves. Do not desire honors, for I have
suffered insults and lashes. Do not seek dignities, for they
have placed a crown of thorns upon my head. Do not revel in
delicacies, for drey have quenched my thirst with gall.

The same thoughts on the mysticism of Christ and His
Passion are also found in another opusculum of St Thomas.
The opusculum directed against Nicholas of Lisieux in 1270
Contra pestiferam doctrinam retrahentium homines a re­
ligionis ingressu, begins with an exposition of the idea of
imitating the humble and poor Jesus. The Angelic Doctor
states:
The purpose of the Christian religion seems to consist prin-

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Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

cipally in this —that men withdraw From partly things apd
become intent upon thùîgs.spiritual. Hence it was that Jesus,
the author and consummator of faith, by His entry into the
world showed His faithful in word and deed contempt for
temporal affairs. . . . He was bom of a mother, who, although
untouched by man at conception and during life, nevertheless
was espoused to a carpenter — thus He excluded any form of
camal nobility. He was bom in the town of Bethlehem, which
was insignificant among the cities of Judea — thus He did not
wish anyone to glory in the grandeur of a terrestrial city. He
* who possessed all and through whom all things are, became
poor, lest anyone, believing in Him, would dare to boast of
worldly riches. He did not wish to be made king, for He
pointed out the way of humility. He, who fed all, hungered;
He, who created all drink, thirsted; He, who opened up the
way to Heaven, grew tired on His journey; He, who ended
our afflictions, was crucified; He, who awakened the dead,
'died for man.
The opusculum De Rationibus Fidei contra Saracenos,
Graecos et Armenos ad Cantorem Antiochenum, 18 also trans­
lated into Greek, is filled with beautiful and profound
thoughts on Christ’s sacred life and example of virtue, and,
in general, on the ascetical and mystical significance of the
doctrine of the Incarnation. It is a genuine treasure of the
beauty and clarity of St. Thomas’ theological thought.
I am extracting a few thoughts from the seventh chapter
of this truly valuable work, which treats of Christ’s passion
and death:

If anyone considers from a pious motive the fitness of the
passion and death of Christ, he will find such a profundity of
knowledge that continuously more and greater thoughts come '
to him. . . . The first consideration is that Christ assumed
our human nature to repair the fall of man. Therefore it was
necessary that Christ suffer and do those things according to
His human nature which could offer a remedy for sin. The

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The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

sin of man consists in his clinging to corporal things, leaving
aside spiritual goods. It befitted the Son of God therefore in
His assumed human nature to show by His deeds and suffer­
ings that men should despise temporal goods and evil, lest
being impeded by an inordinate affection for them, they should
be less given to spiritual things. Thus Christ chose parents who
were poor, yet perfected in virtue, so that nobody would glory
solely in nobility of flesh and wealth of parents. He led the
life of a poor man that He might teach us to despise riches.
He lived without honors that He might restrain men from
.. seeking them inordinately. He underwent labor, hunger, thirst,
and a scourging of the body, lest men, intent upon pleasures
and luxuries, be drawn away from the good of virtue because
of the difficulties of life. Ultimately He underwent death, lest
anybody might deny the truth because of the fear of death.
And so that nobody would fear to suffer a horrible death for
truth, He chose the most despicable type of death —that of
the cross. Thus it was fitting for the Son of God made man to
suffer death, so that by His example He might mate men
to virtue.
Not only virtuous conduct is necessary for men to attain
' salvation . . . but also a knowledge of truth. ... Therefore
it was necessary that the Son of God made man give to men
a doctrine of divine truth. And to prove this truth to be divine
and not human, He wrought a great number of miracles.
In the humility, poverty, and lowliness of Jesus Christ, St.
Thomas finds strength and confirmation to prove His miracles:
If Christ had lived in wealth, power, and great dignity, it
could be believed that His doctrine and miracles had been
received by reason of human ingenuity and favour. And so
that the work might manifestly be of divine power, He chose
what was abject and lowly in the world: a poor mother and
a needy life, uneducated Apostles and disciples; to be despised
by the great men of the world, and eventually to be condemned
to death. In this way He manifestly showed that the acceptance

?

Christ and the Interior Life of St. Thomas

ηη

of His miracles and of His doctrine ought to be attributed to
divine rather than human power. ,
Therefore in all that He accomplished and suffered, human
infirmity is simultaneously conjoined with divine power. In His
nativity, wrapped up in swaddling clothes, He was placed in
a manger—but gloriously praised by angels and adored by the
Magi. He was tempted by die devil, but ministered toby angels.
He lived in need and poverty, but raised the dead to life and
gave sight to the blind. He died fixed to a Cross, numbered
among thieves, but at His death the sun was darkened, the
earth trembled, the stones were shattered, the graves were
opened, and the bodies of the dead arose. If, therefore, from
such a beginning, one sees the fruit which followed, namely
the conversion of nearly the whole world to Christ, and still
seeks other signs for believing, he can be regarded as harder
than a rock, for at His death the rocks burst asunder.
Such is St. Thomas’ devotedness to Christ. His whole,
.interior life is illumined by the dogmatic notion of the God­
man and His work of Redemption, all of which he under­
stood so deeply. His innerrnosCmshes and strivings_glow-with
a deep love of Christ. His life and actions are fashioned and
transfigured by an.everyday.imitation of Christ. Consequently
his life in Christ constitutes the ultimate reason for his wis-„
dom, love, and peâcé—the esseritiaT traits~in the interior life
of St. Thomas.
St. Thomas’ whole intellectual life is determined and
orientated from above. He hopes for and obtains true wisdom
from the heavenly heights, toward which his intellect gazes
with ardor and faith. Thither he lifts himself upon the wings
of charity, which contemplates and loves God in all things.
From these heights that peace flows into his soul, which die
world cannot give, which Christ brought into the world and
diffuses in those who are docile.

78

The Interior Life of St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas has impressively proclaimed his ideal under­
standing of his academic and scientific life’s work in a re- <
cently discovered inaugural address, which he delivered when
he was installed in the office of Master of Theology at the
University of Paris in 1256?®
It begins with the words of the Psalm 103, verse 13:
"Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms: the earth
shall be filled with the fruits of thy works.” Just as the
mountains tower high above the earth and are near the
heavens, in like manner the doctors of truth must rise above
the things of this earth and strive only after heavenly things.
Just as the mountains are first illumined by the light from
the sun, so also the doctors of sacred science receive the
splendor of the mind first Cmentiuw splendorem prius reci­
piant'). Their intellectual life participates in eternity (qui <
sunt in participatione aeternitatis).
He concludes this profound inaugural address with the
biblical thought that God generously gives to all who implore
Him for wisdom, and then adds:

“Let us pray, that God grant it to us all. Amen ”

APPENDIX
i
I
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Introduction
■
' "<
1
I. Guilio Bertoni, ed. Emilio Paolo Vicini, Tommaso da Modena. Atti
e Memorie della R. Deputazione di storia patria per le provinâe modenesi,
serie V, vol. 3, 1904.
J. J. Berthier, O.P., Le Chapitre de San Niccolo de Trevise. Peintures
de fra Tommaso da Modena (Rome, 1912).
,
■
2. Paolo D’Ancona, Le miniature florentine (sec. XI—XV), II (Firenze,
1914). ρ· 487.
3. Cf. M. Grabmann, Neuaufgefundene Werke deutscher Mystïker.
Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Àkademie der Wissenschaften. Philosoph. — philol. und hist. Klasse (München, 1922), p. 18.
4. Cf. L. Lavaud, Saint Thomas “Guide des Études." Notes et
commentaires sur L'Encyclique Studiorum ducem de S. S. Pie XI
(Paris, 1925).
5. A. Touron, OJP., La vie de S. Thomas d’Aquin (Paris, 1737),
PP- 373-592·
6. M. Gillet, O.P., La personnalité de Saint Thomas et l’impersonnalité
de sa doctrine (Toulouse, 1919).
H. Petitot, O.P., Saint Thomas d’Aquin (2 ed.) (Paris, 1923).
S. Ramirez, O.P., “Qué es un tomistaî” La Ciencia tomista, 1920 (pp.
166-180 give a very striking analysis of the scientific individuality of
St. Thomas).
G. M. Manser, O.P., "Die wissenschaftliche Personlichkeit des hl.
Thomas von Aquin," Divus Thomas, 1923, pp. 218-232.
Cf. also P. Rouselot, S.J., "L’esprit de Saint Thomas,’* Études, 1911,
pp. 614-629.
B. Jansen, S.J., "Die wissenschaftliche Eigenart des Aquinaten,”
Stimmen der Zeit, 98 (1920), pp. 442-456.
-------- Wege der Weltweisheit (Freihurg, 1924), pp. 98-124.
Other contributions which offer a picture of the soul and character of
St. Thomas are;
Saint Thomas, Études publiées par le Collège Dominicain d’Ottawa i
l’occasion de sa Canonisation (Ottawa, 1923).
M. Cordovani, O.P., L’attualitâ di S. Tommaso d'Aquino (Milano,
1923).
R. Fei, O.P., San Tommaso d’Aquino, L’Uomo, Il Domenicano,
Il Santo, Il Genio (Torino, 1923).
R. M. Giuliani, O.P., L’Angelo deUe Scuole (Torino, 1924). <
79