The life and affect of St.Thomas Aquinas - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Some claim that the family acquired the name Aquinas from the small Italian town they lived in. Saint Thomas was an exceptional and extraordinary man, who rose above all human challenges to become what he became. The writings and teachings of Saint Thomas were and will be of great impact to humankind. Though he lacked much appreciation, Thomas came to recognition roughly three hundred years ago, when they realized that he was the greatest and most influential catholic teachers of all time (Anonymous). Saint Thomas was so influential that despite his existence many centuries ago, some of his hand written work exist to date and are available in libraries. As such, this paper will provide a description of the life and affect of St. Thomas Aquinas otherwise referred to as a biography. Early life His father was Landulph Aquinas the count of Aquino and his mother Theodore the countess of teano. The Italian family of Aquino was linked to several royals of Europe like Fredrick II and Henry VI. Despite being related to the royals, the Aquino family was poor and lacked all the glory that royalty brings along. Saint Thomas had eight siblings and the family youngest child, and the sixth son of the Aquino. Saint Thomas was of light complexion, big bodied and impressive physique. Like any other human being, Thomas had a thunderstorm phobia or in other words great fear of thunderstorms. This transpired after Thomas witnessed lightning killing his little sister one night and this experience lived with him forever (Schmitz 12). Thomas had a normal life as a child though it halted when he was taken to Monte Casino when he was only nine years old. Education Saint Thomas Aquino left of the abbey of Monte Casino to enroll in religious education when he was only nine years of age. This was the norm or tradition of those early days. Saint Thomas stayed at the abbey until he was 13 years old, the time he left for Naples University to further his religious education. He excelled tremendously and it is in the university where he explored both the natural and metaphysical work of Aristotle. At the age of nineteen years, Saint Thomas secretly joined the Dominican monks, who were enlisting young scholars at the time. In 1244, young Saint Thomas was ordained and a huge crowd of people attended the big ceremonial event. The good news spread everywhere like bush fire and eventually the family of Saint Thomas leant about the event (McInerny and O'Callaghan). They were very annoyed and thus when they strategized to bring him home despite the family’s state of poverty. They tried all possible means of retrieving their son from the clutches of the Dominicans and even went further to consulting the pope to no avail. As the family was inventing other strategies to kidnap him, Saint Thomas left for Rome at a very short notice and the family was shocked. However, despite his relocation to Rome, his brothers who were in the imperial army captured him. His brothers took him to a family castle and imprisoned him for almost two years. The family of Saint Thomas then grasped the chance to discourage and dissuade him from resuming to the Dominican institution. His brother even went ahead and brought him a prostitute into the prison so as to tempt him, but Saint Thomas drove her away holding on in his faith. While still in prison Saint Thomas did not stop studying and learning in his own. His ...Download file to see next pages Read More