St. Thomas of Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas
An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)
Doctor of the Church
Born	1225 Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily
Died	7 March 1274 (aged 48–49) Fossanova, Papal States
Venerated in	Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism
Canonized	18 July 1323, Avignon, Papal States by Pope John XXII
Major shrine	Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France
Feast	28 January (7 March, until 1969)
Attributes	The Summa theologiae, a model church, the sun on the chest of a Dominican friar
Patronage	Academics; against storms; against lightning; apologists; Aquino, Italy; Belcastro, Italy; book sellers; Catholic academies, schools, and universities; chastity; Falena, Italy; learning; pencil makers; philosophers; publishers; scholars; students; University of Sto. Tomas; Sto. Tomas, Batangas; theologians.

Thomas Aquinas
Detail from Valle Romita Polyptych by Gentile da Fabriano (circa 1400)
Born	Tommaso d'Aquino
Alma mater	Abbey of Monte Cassino University of Naples University of Paris
Notable work	Summa Theologiae Summa contra Gentiles
Era	Medieval philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Scholasticism Thomism Metaphysical intellectualism Medieval realism
Main interests	Metaphysics, logic, theology, mind, epistemology, ethics, politics
Notable ideas	Quinque viae
Influences Aristotle, Socrates, Avicenna, Averroes,Al-Ghazali, Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, John of Damascus, Paul the Apostle, Dionysius the Areopagite, Albertus Magnus, Maimonides, Anselm, Plato, Cicero, Eriugena
Influenced Giles of Rome, Godfrey of Fontaines, Hooker, Descartes, Locke, Dante, Leibniz, Thomas Reid, Martain, Gilson, Anscombe, Donoso Cortés, Eckhart, Chesterton, Joyce, Kenny, Pope Pius XII, Carvalho, Rand, Rothbard, Walker Percy, Mortimer J. Adler, Cornelio Fabro, Fulton J. Sheen, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Joseph Maréchal, Karl Rahner, Peter Geach, Alasdair MacIntyre, Alexander Pruss; See also Thomism, Catholic theology

Saint Thomas Aquinas O.P. (/əˈkwaɪnəs/; Italian: Tommaso d'Aquino, lit. 'Thomas of Aquino'; 1225 – 7 March 1274), was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio.

He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle—whom he called "the Philosopher"—and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. The works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.