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( Thomas Aquinas)
Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. (also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino; b. ca. 1225; died 7 March, 1274) was an Italian Catholic priest in the Dominican Order, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. He is frequently referred to as Thomas because "Aquinas" refers to his residence rather than his surname. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived as a reaction against, or as an agreement with, his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory. Aquinas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood.[1] The works for which he is best-known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. One of the 33 Doctors of the Church, he is considered by many Catholics to be the Catholic Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Consequently, many institutions of learning have been named after him. Aquinas was born c. 1225 at his father Count Landulf's castle of Roccasecca in the Kingdom of Sicily, in the present-day Regione Lazio. Through his mother, Theodora Countess of Theate, Aquinas was related to the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman emperors.[2] Landulf's brother Sinibald was abbot of the original Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino. While the rest of the Aquinas sons pursued a military career,[3] the family intended for Aquinas to follow his uncle into the abbacy.[4] This would have been a normal career path for a younger son of southern Italian nobility.[2] At the age of five, Aquinas began his early education at Monte Cassino but after the military conflict that broke out between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilled into the abbey in early 1239, Landulph and Theodora had Aquinas enrolled at the studium generale (university) recently established by Frederick in Naples.[5] It was here that Aquinas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy.[6] It was also during his study at Naples that Aquinas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order to recruit devout followers.[7] According to Grabmann, Thomas may have been taught by the Irish philosopher Peter of Ireland.
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