Is St. Thomas Aquinas strict?

[WesleyF]

I do not know why but for some weird reason I perceive St. Thomas Aquinas to be strict and so I am afraid to ask him for prayers! Please help me out!

 

[_L]

no more strict or less strict than any other saint in Heaven who has been conformed to the perfect love of God. That’s all I got

 

[baltobetsy]

Well, he was a big, fat guy, so I’m guessing he’s pretty familiar with human weaknesses.

 

[GloriousOrder]

St. Thomas had a very warm heart. When opponents of his “new” (Aristotelian) method invited him to debates with the intention of trapping him, he was always charitable. If they became angry with his ideas (as they often did, being neo-platonists), they’d often start attacking his character like pharisees. There have always been people like that in academia… but St. Thomas stuck to the subject and politely dismissed their fallacious arguments. He was very tall and fat, but it was the sort of obesity that lends itself to quiet nobility and subtle jolliness. St. Thomas was no Santa Claus, but he was hardly an intense irritable professor - or a brutal professional wrestler, for that matter.

St. Thomas received very simple joy from finding long-lost texts. He would have preferred to have one copy of an early scholastic commentary rather than the keys of Paris! Whatever your fears, he is a saint: and all saints are in the height of glory and have perfect charity in Heaven. He certainly smiles on we poor sinners, now that he is intimately within exactly that which we’re striving toward! St. Martin de Porres may have showed his peasant-joy in more open terms, but St. Thomas had his own that was very fatherly and loving.

Never be afraid to ask any saint for prayers. All human imperfections have been tempered in the heights.

 

[Te_Deum]

You wont even want to hear about Saint Jerome .

 

[WesleyF]

St. Thomas had a very warm heart. When opponents of his “new” (Aristotelian) method invited him to debates with the intention of trapping him, he was always charitable. If they became angry with his ideas (as they often did, being neo-platonists), they’d often start attacking his character like pharisees. There have always been people like that in academia… but St. Thomas stuck to the subject and politely dismissed their fallacious arguments. He was very tall and fat, but it was the sort of obesity that lends itself to quiet nobility and subtle jolliness. St. Thomas was no Santa Claus, but he was hardly an intense irritable professor - or a brutal professional wrestler, for that matter.

St. Thomas received very simple joy from finding long-lost texts. He would have preferred to have one copy of an early scholastic commentary rather than the keys of Paris! Whatever your fears, he is a saint: and all saints are in the height of glory and have perfect charity in Heaven. He certainly smiles on we poor sinners, now that he is intimately within exactly that which we’re striving toward! St. Martin de Porres may have showed his peasant-joy in more open terms, but St. Thomas had his own that was very fatherly and loving.

Never be afraid to ask any saint for prayers. All human imperfections have been tempered in the heights.

Thanks! Where do I find the stories of his opponents inviting him to debates?

 

[WesleyF]

You wont even want to hear about Saint Jerome .

Why?

 

[Te_Deum]

Why?

Well lets say he was rather… aggressive .

 

[JaredR]

I imagine St. Thomas Aquinas to be like Socrates, having an incredibly rational and organized mind but being very humble and amiable.

 

[GloriousOrder]

Thanks! Where do I find the stories of his opponents inviting him to debates?

There are lovely anecdotes about his life from “St. Thomas Aquinas” by M.C. d’Arcy, S.J. (1st edition 1930, 2nd edition 1953), and they crop up in “Saint Thomas Aquinas” by Fr. Placid Conway, O.P. (1911). It’s hard to tell whether some are true, but this one rings true since he’s a canonised saint.