Thomas was born around the end of 1225 at the castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino in southern Italy. His father was a count, and through his mother he had German ancestry. As a child, he was offered to the monastery of Montecassino (puer oblatus), but he did not remain there. At the age of eighteen, against the will of his family, he entered the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. He studied under Saint Albert the Great in Cologne and later in Paris.
Thomas taught philosophy and theology in Paris, Orvieto, Rome, and Naples. He was charitable, quiet, and recollected, gentle in temperament, large in stature and inclined to obesity—known affectionately as “il buon frate Tommaso” (“the good friar Thomas”), as Dante called him. A contemplative and devout man, though more intellectual than mystical, Thomas was especially gifted for philosophical reflection. His strong realism—almost poetic in his love of “being”—his empirical approach, and his deep knowledge of tradition, combined with his remarkable power of synthesis, earned him the title Doctor communis (the Common Doctor) and later, from the 15th century, Doctor angelicus (the Angelic Doctor).
He was a valued preacher, and as a writer his Latin style was simple yet mathematically precise. On December 6, 1273, while celebrating Mass, he experienced a mysterious interior vision. From that moment, he no longer wished to write or teach. Still, he obeyed Pope Gregory X, who asked him to attend the Council of Lyon as a theologian. On his way there, Thomas fell ill and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanova at dawn on March 7, 1274. He was only forty-nine years old.
He was canonized and added to the Roman calendar in 1323. Since his death anniversary often falls in Lent, the Church now celebrates his feast on January 28, the date in 1369 when his relics were solemnly transferred to Toulouse.
