Thinkers Timeline

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and theologian whose synthesis of Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy became the most influential intellectual achievement of medieval Catholic thought and remains a central reference in Catholic philosophy and theology today. He was born around 1225 at the family castle of Roccasecca, in the Kingdom of Sicily (in present-day Italy), to the noble family of the Counts of Aquino. His parents sent him at age five to the nearby Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, intending him for a monastic career that would eventually make him abbot. In 1239 political conflicts disrupted this plan and he was sent to the University of Naples, where he encountered the works of Aristotle and the new Dominican Order. In 1244 he joined the Dominicans — a decision his family opposed so strongly that they kidnapped him and held him under house arrest for over a year. He persisted, reached Paris in 1245, and became a student of the great Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus. He followed Albertus to Cologne, then returned to Paris, where he became a master of theology in 1256. Over the next eighteen years he wrote at an extraordinary rate — the Summa contra Gentiles (1259-1265), the Summa Theologiae (begun 1265, unfinished), extensive commentaries on Aristotle, commentaries on several books of the Bible, disputed questions, and many other works. He held teaching posts at Paris and at the Dominican study house in Rome and spent his final years in Naples. In December 1273, while celebrating Mass, he had some experience that he described only as straw compared to what he had seen, and he stopped writing. He died a few months later, in March 1274, while travelling to attend the Council of Lyon. He was canonised in 1323. His works have been studied continuously in Catholic institutions for over seven centuries and have influenced philosophy and theology well beyond Catholicism.