St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar, as his title suggests, as well as a philosopher and theologian.
St. Thomas Aquinas was born on 1225 of noble blood in southern Italy. He began his studies in 1239 and formally joined the Dominicans in April of 1244. He continued expanding his knowledge in Paris from 1245 - 1248 with Albertus Magnus. In 1248, he moved to Cologne and spent 4 years there, completing his studies and becoming a teacher himself. He moved again to Paris in 1252 and wrote 2 books, as well as mastered theology by 1256. Returning to Italy in 1259, he is presumed to have lived in Naples from 1256 - 1261, continuing work on a third book, Summa Contra Gentiles. It was finished in 1265 in Orvieto, where he held the post of reader for the convent from 1261 - 1265. He also wrote a 4th book, and then began his commentary on the four Gospels. For the the four years of 1265, '66, '67, and '68, he headed and instructed the Dominican center for studies at Rome, started a second commentary for one of his earlier works, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, began his best work, the Summa Theologica, and completed other tomes. In the autumn of 1268, once again in Paris, France, Thomas taught, disputed, and wrote on numerous other minor questions, as well as finished the second part of the Summa, written through 1271 - 1272. All the while, he adopted and managed a new viewpoint of the world, a raging conflict in Paris from the recently-translated Aristotelian texts. In spring of '72, he returned to Naples to run the new studium. He continued work on the 3rd portion of the Summa, along with lecturing on the Epistle to the Romans and Psalms. After an intense otherworldly experience that left him extremely fatigued and bedridden, he stopped writing and teaching around 1273. He finally left this earth in 1274 after being summoned by Pope Gregory X, en route to the Second Council of Lyon.
OBITUARY: *SAINT JOAN OF ARC
WHO: Joan d'Arc (maiden name), daughter to Jacques & Ysabeau d'Arc; 1 of 5. French military leader and mystic
WHAT: Helped King Charles VII claim the French crown from the English; became his top military advisor. Captured by the English 1430; tried for heresy. After trial in April '30, Joan recanted and admitted to error May 24. Recanted admissions May 28. Tried again as relapsed heretic.
HOW (CAUSE OF DEATH): Burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.
CANONIZED (RECEIVED SAINTHOOD): May 16, 1920
WHAT: Helped King Charles VII claim the French crown from the English; became his top military advisor. Captured by the English 1430; tried for heresy. After trial in April '30, Joan recanted and admitted to error May 24. Recanted admissions May 28. Tried again as relapsed heretic.
HOW (CAUSE OF DEATH): Burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.
CANONIZED (RECEIVED SAINTHOOD): May 16, 1920