The dumb ox, who at the end called his work straw

Pray with Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) was a Dominican friar and the most influential systematic theologian in the history of the Catholic Church, author of the unfinished Summa Theologiae and the Corpus Christi hymns; he is honored as the "Angelic Doctor" and patron of students, universities, and theologians. After a wordless experience during Mass on 6 December 1273 he stopped writing, calling all his work "straw," and died the following March on his way to the Council of Lyon.

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Feast day · January 28

I Signature moments

What made Thomas Aquinas remarkable

The moments worth telling — the astonishing turns of a life.

c. 1244–45

The imprisonment

He was on the road north when his own brothers rode him down. The family had placed him at Monte Cassino as a boy and expected an abbot out of him; he had gone to the Dominicans, who begged their bread. They held him in the family castles for about a year. The early Lives report that a woman was sent into his room to break him, and that he drove her out with a brand snatched from the fire. His sisters were sent in to reason with him. He came out of it a Dominican.

The opposition came from inside the family, and it was not cruelty. They thought they were saving him.

late 1240s

"The Dumb Ox"

He was heavy, slow of speech and silent in the lecture hall, and the students at Cologne named him the dumb ox. One of them offered, out of pity, to walk him through the lesson. As his first biographer tells it, Albert the Great then made him defend a hard question in public, heard him take it apart point by point, and turned on the room: you call him a dumb ox, but the bellowing of this ox will be heard through the whole world. Nobody there had heard him say much before.

The nickname stuck. It is still what he is called, and nobody means it as an insult now.

c. 1264

The Corpus Christi liturgy

In 1264 Urban IV extended the feast of the Body of Christ to the whole Church and wanted an office to carry it. Thomas wrote it. The hymns Pange lingua and Sacris solemniis came out of that work, and the long sequence Lauda Sion. The man who argued in numbered articles, objection and reply, also wrote the verses that parishes still kneel through at benediction — Tantum ergo, the closing stanzas of Pange lingua, sung by people who will never open the Summa.

You are allowed to love the thing you take apart. He wrote his hymns in the same years as his hardest arguments.

+All 6 moments

1273, tradition

The crucifix at Naples

In Naples, near the end, a friar said he had seen Thomas at prayer before the crucifix and heard the figure speak to him: you have written well of me, Thomas, what reward will you have? The answer was four words. Non nisi te, Domine — nothing but you, Lord. The scene reaches us through friars who gave their testimony decades afterwards, when Rome was asking whether he was a saint. No page of his own mentions it. The order has held on to it anyway.

He had spent his life writing about God and asked for nothing that the writing could earn him.

6 December 1273

"It is all straw"

It was 6 December 1273, the feast of Saint Nicholas, and he was saying Mass at Naples. Something happened in it that he never described. Afterwards he stopped writing. Reginald of Piperno, who had taken his dictation for years, pressed him to go back to work and got the answer his students have repeated ever since: he could not, because everything he had written looked to him like straw. The Summa breaks off in the third part, among the questions on penance.

He reached for a farm word. Straw is what is left of the stalks once the grain has been threshed out of them.

7 March 1274

Death at Fossanova

Gregory X had summoned him to the council at Lyon, and he set out north in the winter already ill. He got as far as the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova, south of Rome, and could go no further. The monks put him to bed and cared for him there. He asked for the Eucharist, and those at the bedside remembered how he professed, before receiving it, that he had taught and written of this sacrament in the faith of the Church and laid all of it under her judgement. He died on 7 March 1274, not yet fifty.

The last thing he did with his learning was hand it over.

II In their own words

We need to pray to God, not in order to make known to Him our needs or desires, but that we ourselves may be reminded of the necessity of having recourse to God's help in these matters.
Thomas Aquinas · Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 83, a. 2, ad 1

“For we pray not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may impetrate that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers.”
— Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 83, a. 2

“The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers... In it we ask not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence wherein they should be desired.”
— Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 83, a. 9

III

Who was Thomas Aquinas?

Thomas was born around 1225 in the family castle of Roccasecca, near Aquino, in what was then the Kingdom of Sicily. His father, Landulf of Aquino, belonged to the lesser nobility; Thomas was the youngest of many children. As a boy of about five he was placed as an oblate at the great Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, where his family likely hoped he would one day rise to become abbot — a position of wealth and influence.

Around 1239 he went to study at the new University of Naples, and there two things changed his life: he encountered the newly recovered philosophy of Aristotle, and he met the Dominicans, a young order of poor, itinerant preachers. When Thomas decided to join them, around 1244, his family was appalled — a mendicant friar was far beneath their ambitions. According to well-documented accounts, his brothers seized him on the road and held him under house arrest at the family castles for roughly a year. Tradition adds that they even sent a woman to tempt him, whom he drove off with a firebrand (this detail is pious legend, though the imprisonment itself is historically solid). He did not relent, and eventually the family gave way.

What Thomas Aquinas wrote

The writings that survive — and what tradition only ascribes.

Summa Theologiae (c. 1265–1273) his masterwork, a systematic exposition of theology, left unfinished.
Summa contra Gentiles (c. 1259–1265) a defense of the faith addressed to non-believers.
Corpus Christi liturgy: *Pange lingua*, *Tantum ergo*, *Lauda Sion*, *Adoro te devote*, *O salutaris hostia*, *Panis angelicus * (c. 1264) Eucharistic hymns/prayers (the last two are stanzas drawn from the longer hymns).
Commentaries on Aristotle (e.g. on the Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics, De anima)
Scriptural commentaries and the *Catena aurea * (a chain of patristic comments on the Gospels)
Disputed Questions (De veritate, De potentia, De malo) and short treatises (De ente et essentia, Compendium theologiae)

Prayers

The prayers themselves, and how each one came to be.

In their own words

Adoro te devote

*Latin:* "Adoro te devote, latens deitas, / Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas." *English (Hopkins):* "Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore / Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more."

Eucharistic hymn, c. 1264

The Church's prayer

Collect for the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

O God, who dost enlighten Thy Church by the wondrous learning of blessed Thomas, Thy Confessor and Doctor, and dost make her fruitful by his holy works: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may both understand what he taught, and by imitation accomplish what he did. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee. Amen.

How Thomas Aquinas prayed

Thomas's prayer was inseparable from the Eucharist. His earliest biographers — chiefly William of Tocco, who gathered testimony for the canonization process — record that he prayed before the altar daily, often with tears, and that he was in the habit of leaning his head against the tabernacle when a difficult question would not yield, going from study to prayer and back. He is repeatedly described as celebrating Mass with intense emotion and then attending a second Mass afterward. Contemporaries also reported that he composed and dictated while in a state of deep recollection, sometimes seeming absent to the room around him.

Several striking episodes belong to devout tradition rather than documented fact and should be read as such: reports of levitation at prayer, and the crucifix at Naples that is said to have spoken, "You have written well of me, Thomas; what reward would you have?" — to which he answered, "Nothing but you, Lord." These stories express how his community remembered him; they are not eyewitness history.

What is historically firm is the shape of his devotion: profoundly Eucharistic, quietly emotional beneath a famously calm exterior, and directed always past his own achievements. The decisive fact is his silence after 6 December 1273. A man who had spent his life putting the mystery of God into ordered words met that mystery in a way he could not put into words at all — and chose reverent silence over one more sentence. At the end, at Fossanova, he asked to receive the Eucharist and greeted it with a profession of faith in the Real Presence he had spent his life defending.

Praying with the saints

Thomas Aquinas, Mary, and the rosary

Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican, and the rosary as it took shape belongs to his own Order of Preachers — tradition credits the order's founder, St. Dominic, with spreading the devotion. But the honest and personal link is his own reverence for the "Hail Mary."

Among his last works is the Expositio salutationis angelicae, a word-by-word exposition of the Angelic Salutation — the Hail Mary — delivered as one of his Lenten conferences. In his day only the scriptural first half of the prayer existed; the "Holy Mary, Mother of God" petition and the beaded rosary in its present form were fixed after his death in 1274. So he did not pray the rosary we know today — but he meditated on its central prayer and taught the Church how to understand it.

“The Blessed Virgin was superior to any of the angels in the fullness of grace, and as an indication of this the Angel showed reverence to her by saying: "Full of grace."”
Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Angelic Salutation

To take up a rosary with Aquinas, then, is to pray the very words he unfolded one by one: the Ave Maria at the heart of every decade.

Take it further

Hand-strung in Europe

The Thomas Aquinas rosary

Thomas Aquinas on the centrepiece, faceted glass in your colour, the crucifix in your finish.

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The Thomas Aquinas book

Take home what you found here — Thomas Aquinas's path, prayers and paintings, deepened in one lasting volume.

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Pray with others

Catherine of Siena →

Mystic and Doctor of the Church who told popes their minds

Jesus Christ →

God made man, who withdrew to the mountains at night to pray

Mary, Mother of God →

Sang the Magnificat: God casts the mighty from their thrones

VI Patron of

Patron of what — and why

Some of it a life decided. Some of it a pope declared.

Students

Declared 4 August 1880

His whole life was the pursuit of learning, from a young student under Albert the Great to a master of theology at Paris and Naples. Leo XIII placed all Catholic students under his protection and held him up as the model of the Christian scholar who joins reason to faith.

Pope Leo XIII, brief Cum hoc sit, 4 August 1880 (naming universities, academies, colleges and Catholic schools).

Universities

Declared 4 August 1880

The medieval university was his home ground: his disputed questions and his Summa grew out of the schools of Paris and Naples and shaped their curriculum for centuries. The 1880 brief names universities, academies and colleges explicitly.

Pope Leo XIII, brief Cum hoc sit, 4 August 1880.

Theologians

His Summa Theologiae became the reference work of Catholic theology — tradition holds it was laid on the altar beside Scripture at the Council of Trent — and it was for this teaching that he was raised to Doctor of the Church, the Doctor Angelicus.

Declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V, 1567; traditional patronage of theologians rooted in this status.

Booksellers

A traditional patronage flowing from his enormous written output — two Summae, biblical commentaries and countless disputed questions — which filled the medieval book trade; those who make and sell books took the most prolific of the scholastic doctors as their own.

Traditional patronage, rooted in his prolific authorship rather than a formal papal brief.

Frequently asked

What is St. Thomas Aquinas the patron saint of?+

He is the patron of students, universities, colleges and Catholic schools — declared by Pope Leo XIII in the brief Cum hoc sit of 4 August 1880 — and, by long tradition, of theologians, philosophers and booksellers. In short, he is the patron of Catholic education and of all who pursue learning in the faith.

When is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas?+

28 January in the current Roman calendar — the date his relics were translated to Toulouse. Before the 1969 reform his feast was kept on 7 March, the day of his death in 1274, and traditional-calendar communities still observe that date.

Why is Thomas Aquinas called "the dumb ox"?+

As a student his silence and heavy build led classmates to nickname him the "dumb ox." According to his early biographers his teacher, Albert the Great, replied: "You call him a dumb ox, but one day the bellowing of his teaching will be heard throughout the world." The prophecy held.

What does the story about his work being "straw" mean?+

On 6 December 1273, while celebrating Mass, Thomas had a mystical experience after which he stopped writing, leaving the Summa Theologiae unfinished. Urged to continue, he said, "I cannot, because everything I have written seems like straw to me" compared with what he had seen. He died about three months later, on 7 March 1274.

What did Thomas Aquinas write?+

His major works are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles, together with biblical commentaries and disputed questions. He also composed the Eucharistic hymns Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Adoro te devote and Lauda Sion for the feast of Corpus Christi — poetry still sung by the Church today.

Is Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church?+

Yes. He was canonized on 18 July 1323 by Pope John XXII and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567 by Pope Pius V. He is known as the "Angelic Doctor" (Doctor Angelicus) for the clarity and reach of his theology.

Why pray with St. Thomas Aquinas?+

Because he is the patron of students and seekers and the Church's model teacher of the faith, and because he wrote a tender exposition of the Hail Mary. Praying with him joins study to devotion — asking, as the prayer before study traditionally attributed to him does, that the mind be enlightened and the heart set to love.

Did Thomas Aquinas have a devotion to Mary and the rosary?+

He wrote the Expositio salutationis angelicae, an exposition of the Angelic Salutation (the Hail Mary), honoring Mary as full of grace above the angels. The beaded rosary in its present form and the full Hail Mary were fixed after his death in 1274, so he did not pray the modern rosary — but he meditated deeply on its central prayer.

Sources & further reading+

Wikipedia, "Thomas Aquinas"** (en.wikipedia.org, accessed 2026) — dates, family, imprisonment, Albert the Great, second Paris regency, death — birth at Roccasecca, education, teaching career, works · reliability: high.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Thomas Aquinas" — chronology of writings and the *Summa Theologiae* · reliability: high (scholarly).
Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), "St. Thomas Aquinas" — traditional biography including the "straw" episode and Fossanova death · reliability: medium–high (dated but detailed; blends history and pious tradition).
Summa Theologiae, English Dominican Fathers translation (Benziger, 1911–1925), via New Advent — verbatim quotations on grace/nature (I, q.1, a.8) and prayer (II-II, q.83) · reliability: high (primary text, PD translation).
Wikipedia, "Adoro te devote" — authorship (now accepted), c. 1264 context, Latin text · reliability: high.
Wikipedia, "The Vision of Saint Thomas Aquinas" / Catholic World Report, "Nothing but you, Lord" — the Naples crucifix tradition and "Non nisi te, Domine" · reliability: legend (pious tradition, marked as such).