Priest and Doctor of the Church · Feast day January 28
St. Thomas Aquinas
The feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas is January 28, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar. Traditionally invoked as patron of students and universities. Below: a short life and 5 sourced quotations in their own words.
| Feast day | January 28 |
|---|---|
| In the US calendar | Memorial |
| Title | Priest and Doctor of the Church |
| Died | c. 1274 |
| Patron of | students, universities |
| In their own words | 5 sourced quotations · 1 attributed saying (source unconfirmed) |
| Next on Bless’s Today screen | None left in the published calendar (through December 31, 2028) |
Life
A nobleman’s son who chose the begging Dominicans over his family’s ambitions — they imprisoned him for a year to change his mind and failed. In Paris and Cologne his silence earned him the nickname ‘the dumb ox’; his master Albert predicted his bellowing would fill the world.
His Summa Theologiae remains the greatest synthesis of faith and reason the Church possesses. Near the end he stopped writing, saying all he had written seemed as straw beside what he had seen in prayer.
Patron of
Tradition invokes St. Thomas Aquinas as patron of students and universities.
Saints with the same patronage
- St. Isidore of Sevillestudents · April 4
- St. Aloysius Gonzagastudents · June 21
- St. Benedict of Nursiastudents · July 11
- St. Catherine of Alexandriastudents · November 25
Patronages are traditional, not an official list. All patron saints in Bless, A to Z.
In their own words
Each quotation names the work it comes from. Bless quotes these in the comments beside the verses listed under In Scripture.
Charity is the friendship of man for God.
Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; truth Himself speaks truly, or there's nothing true.
Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God.
The Eucharist is the sacrament of love; it signifies love, it produces love.
Attributed, source unconfirmed
These sayings circulate under the saint’s name, but no source has been confirmed. Bless shows them with that label.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary; to one without faith, no explanation is possible.
In Scripture
In Bless, St. Thomas Aquinas’s words appear in the comments beside these verses. This page’s labels say how each is linked: “on this verse” means the saint wrote about that very verse; “on this theme” means the quotation shares its theme. Scripture is quoted from the Catholic Public Domain Version.
On this theme
Unto the end. A Psalm of David. To you, Lord, I have lifted up my soul.
Psalm 24:1 · CPDV Beside their words: “Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God.”
On this theme
NUN. Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands, toward the Lord in the heavens.
Lamentations 3:41 · CPDV Beside their words: “Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God.”
On this theme
And from his fullness, we all have received, even grace for grace.
John 1:16 · CPDV Beside their words: “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.”
On this theme
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:55 · CPDV Beside their words: “What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; truth Himself speaks truly, or there's…”
On this theme
Before the feast day of the Passover, Jesus knew that the hour was approaching when he would pass from this world to the Father. And since he had always loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
John 13:1 · CPDV Beside their words: “The Eucharist is the sacrament of love; it signifies love, it produces love.”
On this theme
Jesus said to him: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
John 14:6 · CPDV Beside their words: “What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; truth Himself speaks truly, or there's…”
On this theme
I will no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything whatsoever that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
John 15:15 · CPDV Beside their words: “Charity is the friendship of man for God.”
On this theme · source unconfirmed
Jesus said to him: “You have seen me, Thomas, so you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:29 · CPDV Beside their words: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary; to one without faith, no explanation…”
4 more verses
On this theme
and giving thanks, he broke it, and said: “Take and eat. This is my body, which shall be given up for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:24 · CPDV Beside their words: “The Eucharist is the sacrament of love; it signifies love, it produces love.”
On this theme · source unconfirmed
Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not apparent.
Hebrews 11:1 · CPDV Beside their words: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary; to one without faith, no explanation…”
On this theme
Through Christ, he has given us the greatest and most precious promises, so that by these things you may become sharers in the Divine Nature, fleeing from the corruption of that desire which is in the world.
2 Peter 1:4 · CPDV Beside their words: “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.”
On this theme
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16 · CPDV Beside their words: “Charity is the friendship of man for God.”
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Thomas Aquinas. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Thomas Aquinas keeps January 28 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of January.
All the saints of January Born on January 28? A saint for every day
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