A First Things Partner Feature

released 3/6/2026

In this article, Romanus Cessario, O.P., recounts the life, theology, and influence of a revered Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/5–1274). We offer this reading in honor of the anniversary of Aquinas’s death (March 7, 1274), whose official feast day was moved to January 28 so as not to coincide with Lent. Cessario begins with a brief but helpful biography of Aquinas before turning to an exploration of the vast influence of his theological and philosophical work. His genius — at once simple and profound — has deeply influenced almost every branch of higher learning over the course of centuries. Cessario delineates several distinct iterations of Thomism and describes how Aquinas’s thought engaged thinkers around the world, not just in the West. Aquinas’s theology was grounded in metaphysical realism, the unity of divine truth, and the belief that an intelligible creation has the capacity to lead to sure knowledge of God. At the end of his life, the “apostle of truth” desired Christ above all his works or knowledge.

This essay is provided courtesy of First Things. It was published in the March 1999 issue and is read by Ken Myers.

38 minutes

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