St. Thomas Aquinas
The works and devotions of the Angelic Doctor — Dominican friar, theologian of the Summa, hymnist of Corpus Christi, and patron of students.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was a Dominican friar, Doctor of the Church, and the greatest of the scholastic theologians. His Summa Theologiae is the most influential synthesis of Catholic doctrine ever written, and at the request of Pope Urban IV he composed the Office of Corpus Christi — Adoro Te Devote, Pange Lingua, Sacris Solemniis, Verbum Supernum, Lauda Sion — hymns the Church has prayed for more than seven hundred years. He died on his way to the Council of Lyons, having said of his own work, after a mystical vision, mihi videtur ut palea — "it seems to me as straw, compared to what I have seen."
Prayers for Study
The two short prayers Aquinas reportedly recited before and after every session of study, writing, or preaching.
Daily Prayer
The long personal prayer Aquinas reportedly recited daily before an image of Christ — and the bilingual collection of his shorter devotional prayers.
For Holy Communion
Aquinas's two great preparation and thanksgiving prayers for Holy Communion — paired with Adoro Te Devote, the Eucharistic hymn most associated with his own private devotion.
Eucharistic Hymns
The hymns Aquinas composed in 1264 at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new feast of Corpus Christi — the Vespers hymn Pange Lingua (with its excerpt Tantum Ergo), the Matins hymn Sacris Solemniis (with Panis Angelicus), the Lauds hymn Verbum Supernum (with O Salutaris Hostia), and the Mass sequence Lauda Sion. Still sung throughout the Latin Church.
Catechetical Instructions
Aquinas's last preached work — his Lenten sermons at Naples in 1273 on the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary. Plain, pastoral, addressed to ordinary people.
The Summae
Aquinas's three great syntheses — the Summa Theologiae, the Summa contra Gentiles, and the Compendium of Theology. The architecture of Catholic theology, reasoned out from first principles.
Disputed Questions
The quaestiones disputatae — formal scholastic disputations conducted in Aquinas's classroom at Paris, Rome, and Naples — ranging across truth, the power of God, evil, the virtues, the soul, and the metaphysics of immaterial substances.
Scripture & Patristic Commentary
Aquinas the Magister in Sacra Pagina — Master of the Sacred Page. His Scripture commentaries were the heart of his daily teaching at Paris and Naples; the Catena Aurea (Golden Chain), commissioned by Pope Urban IV, wove the Greek and Latin Fathers into a continuous gloss on the Gospels.
Philosophical Commentaries
Aquinas's commentaries on Aristotle, on Boethius, on Pseudo-Dionysius, and on the Liber de Causis. He read the Philosopher closely — twelve Aristotelian works are commented in detail — and used the Neoplatonic tradition without flinching, ordered to a Christian end.
Opuscula — Short Treatises
The shorter works — letters of consultation, polemical defenses of the religious orders, metaphysical and physical opuscula, and the treatise on kingship for the King of Cyprus. Many were composed for a specific occasion or addressee.
Sermons
Aquinas's surviving university sermons — preached at Paris and Naples on dominical and saints'-day pericopes — and the Latin sources behind the Catechetical Instructions on the Creed, Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Ten Commandments.
The Office of Corpus Christi
The complete liturgical office Aquinas composed in 1264 at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new feast — Mass Cibavit, Matins, Lauds, the Little Hours, Vespers, the Octave readings, and the hymns Pange Lingua, Sacris Solemniis, Verbum Supernum, and the sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem. The hymns themselves are available as standalone practices in the Eucharistic Hymns section above.
Dominican Historical Documents
Primary documents from Aquinas's life as a Dominican friar — the acts of the chapters of the Roman Province (1260–1273) in which he took part.