I've read St. Thomas Aquinas' theology and philosophy, but I've never stopped to wonder why he's considered a saint. I probably assumed that being the prolific and influential writer he was, establishing the basic conceptual foundations of Catholicism and thereby becoming one of the Doctors of the Church, was probably justification enough to endow him with such a title.As it turns out, I was wrong. Being the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher of all time is not quite enough to get you to party with Jesus. For that, it seems, you need some incontrovertible evidence of a miracle, and if the following story doesn't convince you we're dealing with real transcendence here, I don't know what will :)
Of course, Aquinas should have been worshiping Mithras, not Jesus...
.
Someone who gets his historical "facts" from TV shows is in no position to mock anyone else.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Now, someone who double-checks the 'facts' he learns from a TV show (against the minutes of the inquiry into the life and miracles of Aquinas conducted by the church at the Archbishop's palace in Naples in 1319) is entitled to mock away.
ReplyDeleteNow, how you got in the position of criticizing someone for not doing his research while not knowing whether I had checked my sources sounds kind of hypocritical, doesn't it?
Actually, if you did read the minutes then you'll know that the way Stephen described it wasn't how it was described in the minutes:
ReplyDelete"Asked if he knew of any miracles worked by Thomas in life or death or after death, the witness narrated the following which happened during that stay at Maenza. Thomas's health declined while he was there, and his socius, seeing his weakness, begged him to take some food: whereupon Thomas said, 'Do you think you could get me some fresh herrings?' The socius replied, 'Oh, yes, across the Alps, in France or England!' But just then a fishmonger called Bordonario arrived at the castle from Terracina with his usual delivery of sardines; and the socius (Reginald of Priverno) asked him what fish he had and was told (sardines). But on opening the baskets, the man found one full of fresh herrings. Everyone was delighted, but astonished too, because fresh herrings were unknown in Italy. And while the fishmonger was swearing that he had brought sardines, not herrings, brother Reginald ran off to tell Thomas, crying, 'God has given you what you wanted - herrings!' And Thomas said, 'Where have they come from and who brought them?' And Reginald said, 'God has brought them!'"
Contrary to what Stephen says, the miracle was that the pilchards actually turned into herrings, not that they turned into herrings into his mouth.
Actually, DLWJ, you're exactly right, and I should have mentioned that in my own response. Good call. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOr, you know, the merchant might have been mistaken and accidentally packed a basket with herrings. Or swapped baskets by mistake with the herring merchant at the inn the night before. Or any number of other plausible possibilities.
ReplyDeleteOr it could be, that it was all total bollocks to start with ....
ReplyDelete