Canonization Process of Thomas Aquinas at Naples
The sworn depositions of forty-two witnesses heard in the archbishop’s palace at Naples in 1319 for the canonization of Thomas Aquinas. Several had known him or his companions, and they describe his last months.
Pope John XXII opened the cause in September 1318 and appointed commissioners, who took evidence at Naples from 21 July to 18 September 1319. Each witness was sworn and asked what he knew and how he knew it, and the notary recorded the answers.
The fullest deposition is that of Bartholomew of Capua, a high officer of the kingdom of Sicily, in sections 76 to 86. He says that as a young student at Naples he frequented the Dominican house and learned about Thomas from friars who had been his pupils. His account of how Thomas stopped writing came, he says, from Reginald of Piperno, Thomas’s companion, by way of another friar who heard Reginald’s confession. It is therefore testimony at third hand, given forty-five years after the event, but under oath and with the chain of informants named.
Cited in
- about 1265 to 1273, estimated date