Doctor Angelicus, Ora Pro Nobis!

Today is the feast of the great saint, scholar and Dominican, Thomas Aquinas.



I rather like this severe portrait of the Dumb Ox. It makes him look like a professor, and he was that long before he was a saint.

I'll leave it to others to discuss how titanic a figure the Angelic Doctor is in the history of Christianity. I just want to point out that he was also a poet and composer of real gifts. If you turn up your speakers, you can listen to one of his pieces, O Salutaris Hostia, a hymn to the Eucharist.