St. Thomas Aquinas

Introduction & Top Questions
Early years
Studies in Paris
Years at the papal Curia and return to Paris
Last years at Naples
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Altarpiece painting by Francesco Traini showing Saint Thomas Aquinas seated at the center holding a book, surrounded by scholars, saints, and Christ above.

Andrea da Firenze: The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas

At a Glance

Saint Thomas Aquinas summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Agathon (centre) greeting guests in "Plato's Symposium" oil on canvas by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869; in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Philosophy 101

Louis IX of France (St. Louis), stained glass window of Louis IX during the Crusades. (Unknown location.)

Medieval History Quiz: Part One

Related Questions

How did Arabic and Jewish thinkers influence St. Thomas Aquinas?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas adapt Aristotle's idea of the unmoved mover?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas connect happiness with knowing and loving God?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas distinguish God from created beings?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas distinguish philosophy from theology?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas explain human free will and divine Providence?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas explain the difference between essence and existence?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas explain the relationship between the human soul and body?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas influence medieval education?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas organize his writings in the form of questions?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas respond to concerns about Aristotle's philosophy?
How did St. Thomas Aquinas use reason within religious faith?
How did Thomism become the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church in 1917?
How did neo-Thomism use St. Thomas Aquinas's ideas in the modern era?
How did the Second Vatican Council affect the influence of Thomism?
How is the Summa theologiae organized?
What did St. Thomas Aquinas mean by describing God as pure being?
What does Thomism mean in relation to St. Thomas Aquinas's thought?
What was Latin Averroism, and why was it condemned in 1270?
What work did St. Thomas Aquinas do for the papal Curia?
When and where was St. Thomas Aquinas born?
When did St. Thomas Aquinas die?
When was St. Thomas Aquinas canonized as a saint?
Where did St. Thomas Aquinas die?
Where did St. Thomas Aquinas spend most of his childhood?
Where did St. Thomas Aquinas study after leaving Monte Cassino?
Where did St. Thomas Aquinas teach theology?
Which major works did St. Thomas Aquinas write?
Which religious order did St. Thomas Aquinas join as a young man?
Who was Albertus Magnus to St. Thomas Aquinas?
Why did Pope Leo XIII call for renewed study of St. Thomas Aquinas?
Why did St. Thomas Aquinas believe faith and reason cannot contradict each other?
Why did St. Thomas Aquinas believe societies need laws in addition to natural law?
Why did St. Thomas Aquinas believe the human soul is immortal?
Why did St. Thomas Aquinas leave Monte Cassino in 1239?
Why did St. Thomas Aquinas leave the Summa theologiae incomplete?
Why was St. Thomas Aquinas named a doctor of the church?
Why was St. Thomas Aquinas sent back to Paris in 1268?
Why was the Supplement added to the unfinished Summa theologiae?
What was St. Thomas Aquinas’s childhood like?
What did St. Thomas Aquinas write?
Why is St. Thomas Aquinas important?
Who was St. Ambrose?
What was the Investiture Controversy involving St. Anselm of Canterbury?
How did St. Gregory the Great influence the Roman Catholic Church’s administration?
How was Marcus Tullius Cicero influential?
What was Marcus Tullius Cicero’s greatest achievement?
What was Marcus Tullius Cicero’s relationship with the First Triumvirate?
What was Marcus Tullius Cicero’s oratory style?

Philosophy & Religion Religious Figures & Scholars Popes & Antipopes

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External Websites

Teach Democracy - St. Thomas Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Common Good
World History Encyclopedia - Biography of Thomas Aquinas
LOUIS Pressbooks - Readings in Western Philosophy for Louisiana Learners - Biography of St. Thomas Aquinas
Great Thinkers - Thomas Aquinas
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Thomas Aquinas
Digital Commons at Butler University - Knowledge and Love of God in Ramanuja and Aquinas (PDF)
La Salle University Digital Commons - Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Non-Recluse
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Saint Thomas Aquinas

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Thomas Aquinas - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

St. Thomas Aquinas

Italian Christian theologian and philosopher

Also known as: Aquinas, Doctor Angelicus, San Tommaso D’Aquino(Show More)

Written by

Marie-Dominique Chenu

Lecturer, École pratique des hautes études, Paris, 1945–51. Author of Toward Understanding St. Thomas and others.

Marie-Dominique Chenu

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

St. Thomas Aquinas (born 1224/25, Roccasecca, near Aquino, Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of Sicily [Italy]—died March 7, 1274, Fossanova, near Terracina, Latium, Papal States; canonized July 18, 1323; feast day January 28, formerly March 7) was an Italian Dominican theologian and the foremost medieval Scholastic. He developed his own conclusions from Aristotelian premises, notably in the metaphysics of personality, creation, and Providence. As a theologian, he was responsible in his two masterpieces, the Summa theologiae...

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