In the final Saintly Summer, we reflect on St. Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of students and a great teacher of the Catholic faith. Known for his remarkable intellect and love of learning, St. Thomas devoted his life to helping others understand their faith. But near the end of his life, St. Thomas recognized that even his greatest intellectual accomplishments were nothing compared to his love for God. His example reminds us that while learning about our faith is important, our faith ultimately calls us to know God with our minds and love Him with our hearts.

Saintly Summer – Full Text
Our last saint of the Saintly Summer is Saint Thomas Aquinas. And Saint Thomas is known for a lot of things but he’s the patron saint of students. Saint Thomas had a great intellect. He is the father of scholasticism. He’s the one who helped us understand transubstantiation of the Bread and Wine become the body and blood of Christ. He wrote Tantum Ergo, a lot of the great songs we sing in the church, A great man of intellect to help us better understand our faith both logically and rationally. One of my

favorite lines from St. Thomas is not about his intellect, it’s towards the end of his life when he said that, all of his writings, all of his Summa Theologica, all of his intellectual accomplishments was, but a pile of straw compared to his love for God. Saint Thomas realized that what mattered was not just being able to understand God with his mind but loving God with his heart. And maybe unlike St. Thomas, we have a hard time getting our mind around some of the Mysteries of the Faith. We can follow him in his simplicity and realizing that it’s much more about love, over mind. Yes, we need to learn about our faith. Yes, we need to grow in our faith intellectually, but it’s really about loving the Lord with our heart that makes us better Christians. And St. Thomas, even though he had the gift of intellect, he didn’t lose the gift of love which is ultimately would make him a saint.