Thomas Aquinas
Dominican friar of a noble family, pupil of Albert the Great, who taught at Paris and wrote the Summa Theologiae. He stopped writing at Naples in December 1273 and died on 7 March 1274.
William of Tocco, who wrote his life for the canonization, says that Thomas was sent as a boy to the schools of Naples, entered the Order of Preachers there and was held by his family for nearly two years to make him give it up (William of Tocco, Life of Thomas Aquinas chs. 5–8, 11). He studied at Cologne under Albert the Great and was sent on his recommendation to teach at Paris (William of Tocco, Life of Thomas Aquinas chs. 12–14). Tocco lists among his writings a commentary on the Sentences, the Summa of theology in three parts and the book Against the Gentiles (William of Tocco, Life of Thomas Aquinas ch. 17).
A witness at the canonization inquiry of 1319 testified that Thomas stopped writing after a Mass at Naples and said that all he had written seemed to him straw (Canonization process of Thomas Aquinas (Naples, 1319), 79). Tocco dates his death to the morning of 7 March 1274, in the forty-ninth year of his life (William of Tocco, Life of Thomas Aquinas ch. 65), which puts his birth about 1225. See Thomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae.
In the timeline
- about 1265 to 1273, estimated dateThomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae
The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, pupil of Albert the Great and master at Paris, sets out theology in three parts, in questions and articles, drawing on Scripture, church doctors and philosophers. He stops writing at Naples in December 1273 and dies three months later.