January 28, Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas

Today, January 28, is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.  St. Thomas was born 1225 in Aquino, Kingdom of Sicily and died March 7, 1274 in the Kingdom of Sicily.  He was a priest, philosopher and theologian writing in such areas as metaphysics, logic, ethics, and politics.  His best known work is the Summa Theologica.

Wikipedia provides the following sketch of St. Thomas:

"Thomas Aquinas, O.P., also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino; (Aquino, 1225 – Fossanova, 7 March 1274) was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis. "Aquinas" is not a surname (hereditary surnames were not then in common use in Europe), but is a Latin adjective meaning "of Aquino", his place of birth. 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 was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory.

"Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood. The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "The Church has declared Thomas' doctrines to be her own."

For more information about St. Thomas view the full Wikipedia entry.  Thanks to Tom McGrath for pointing out the Feast Day. P.S.: When we were in school, the feast day was March 7!