The Angel of the Schools

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 23, 14 June 1923, Page 25

The Angel of the Schools

Pius XI on St. Thomas of Aquin An event having important bearing on philosophic and Thoinastic studies was the recent discourse of the Holy Father at the Roman Academy of St. Thomas of Aquin (says the Irish Catholic). On the third Sunday of the month of March —in which occurs the feast of St. Thomas of Aquin—a distinguished audience gathered in the Sala Ducale of the Vatican, composed of clerical dignitaries of high position and of renown for learning, with some hundreds of students. His Holiness Pope Pius XI. came, accompanied by the Presidential Council—Cardinals Bisleti, Billot, and Lega. Cardinal Bisleti, addressed the Holy Father. The Holy Father replied by the following discourse: THE POPE'S DISCOURSE. This is for Us an hour of true joy, of true consolation, which compels Us to thank, without delay and with all Our heart, you, in the first place, Most Eminent Cardinal President, you Most Eminent colleagues, and all the Academicians, Professors, and students of the Roman Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas of Ariuin. A True Joy. * , It is a true joy because the memory and the name of. St. Thomas of Aquin suffices to excite it, above all when this memory and this name personify themselves, so to speak, in so high an institution, in so enlightened a body as is this Pontifical Academy. And with greater reason when the Academy itself and its sentiments are represented and interpreted in a manner so beautiful?* so luminous, so full of affection as they have been in the words of the Most Eminent Cardinal President. All that suffices to transport Us as by enchantment into a region all of light and of splendor of truthof that light and that splendor through which the first canoniser of Thomas of Aquin, Dante Alighieri, saw and illustrated when he sang "the intellectual light full of lovelove of the true, full of gladness—gladness which surpasses all sweetness." The Doctrine St. Thomas. The doctrine of St. Thomas is in truth light—which descends from God and ascends to God. Yes, truly, in this man, in whom, as has been so well said, virtue and doctrine unite to make of him the wisest of the Saints and the most saintly of the wise, the Infinite Wisdom has been pleased to imprint the vastest traces of Himself and to kindle one of the most brilliant raj's which reflected His immortal clarity. This ray was to be Thomas of Aquiu, and such he was in the admirable transparence of his word. He knew how to make it shine over all the immense field of all that has been created, of the knowable, of being, of truth, carrying it even to the summit, and summing it up in some degree in the two immortal Summasthe "Surama Theologica" and the "Summa Contra Gentiles"—which forty years ago were marvellously described to Us, and of which classification was made for Us. We know not if Mgr. Talamo remembers a Conference that We heard at that epoch on this subject. He spoke to Us of the two "Summas," and he told Us that one of them shows us heaven seen from earth, and the other earth seen from heaven.

The Popes and St. Thomas.

Thomas was, then, a light truly worthy of God Who raised him up. It is not astonishing that the Church has wished to make this light her own, and to adorn herself therewith, to illuminate by' it her immortal doctrine—all the more because this light came from the very Heart of God, from that source of true science— wounds' of the Crucifix, from within which St. Thomas declared that he had drawn. It is not astonishing that all the Popes have engaged in the noble rivalry of trying which could best exalt him, propound him, inculcate him as model, master, doctor, patron, and protector of all the schools. It is not astonishing that St. Thomas, like all the great Institutes, has his bullarium—magnificent.bullarium which would of itself suffice to constitute, so to speak, the dorsal spine of his posthumous glory.

That which you have been pleased, Most Eminent President, to recall of Our'young years, already so far away, touches Us in a manner particularly dear and consoling to Our heart. All that is true. When in the first

month of this Pontificate to which Providence, in spite of Our unworthiness, has elevated Us, We addressed Ourselves to you personally to address the .word to all the students, in exalting once again St. Thomas and his doctrines, We did no more than obey the sentiment which We bear for so long in Our heart and which has had such a part in Our studies. The Pope's Student Days. The document to which your Eminence has piously, filially, gently, made allusion bears date the 26th July, 1882. So many years have since run their course! But, well before that date the sweet and luminous figure of St. Thomas of Aquin and the most pure inspiration of his holy life — say it with all the trust of a Father in his —had already smiled upon the studies of Our youth, and We might almost say upon the studies of Our childhood. And Our heart fills with the most profound joy, when W bring Ourselves back in thought to Our first contacts with the Academy of St. Thomas, which was then in its'first days, in its first labors. The Pope's Professors. I see again with a filial affection of respect and'admiration the fine figures of the Cardinal Presidents of that epoch—-those figures who bear the names of Cardinals Pecci and Zigliara. We recall the names of Our examiners, not only with veneration but also with gratitude, because We owe so much to their magnificent . liberality as professors and to their benevolence as judges. The illustrious Masters who taught then, were Fathers Liberatore, Cornoldi, Mazzella, and Professors Lorenzelli and Satelli, since become Cardinals. The secretary of the Examination Commission was Mgr. Talamo, here present, true vestal of this sacred fire and of this .luminous Pharos which Leo XIII., with a gesture of genius', wished to light by this Academy in the bosom of this great and holy Rome— Talamo who has done so much for the Academy of St. Thomas at its fatiguing and glorious beginnings—-none of you can "remember it so well as We Ourselvesand who still, after so many glorious and fruitful years of activity does not. cease to devote himself to this institution.

A Solemnity of Memories.

We are, then, very happy to cause to rise up before Us so beautiful and affecting a solemnity of memories which confirm Us in the thought which We have already manifested. Yes, Eminence, We shall walk, as much as God will permit it, in the footprints of Our predecessors, and We shall but follow that which has been one of the most beautiful and most holy aspirations of, all Our life, in recommending always to all the friends of faith and of science, of natural truth and of revealed truth, to keep themselves faithful to St. Thomas and to his doctrine. Renan and St. Thomas. We began by setting before you the true joy and the true consolation with your presence before Us has procured for Us. I have spoken to you of the joy, and you have been able to comprehend and divine Our soul better than We Ourselves have been able to express it. The joy which you give Us is not less true or less dpportune. Yes, beloved sons, We find Ourselves in the resplendent light of St. Thomas on the morrow of the day in which, in this Rome, "wherein Christ is a Roman," certain persons have had the unhappy thought of rendering an undeserved honor to a man to whom, in truth, nothing was due on the part of Our Italy, not even for the literary or scientific merits which the specialists have, discussed and judged as was fitting— a man whose name can do no less than recall blasphemy against Jesus Christ, His Divinity, and His life blasphemy which sufficed unfortunately to give him a notoriety and renown before the great public.'" While these undeserved honors are rendered to this science which the true savants have justly adjudged false, superficial, and impious, you have come, most opportunely, to render honor to the true science,' to that which derives from the Christ and conducts back again to the Christ. Whilst these undeserved honors go to a man who had not even — it befitted a Prince of the Church to cause to be notedthe merit of the respect due to his country and to his nation, you come to honor the true science which bows down before the altar, before the God of wisdom, and seeks nought else than to gather up from all that has been created, real or ideal, natural or supernatural, the magnificent and continual harmony which God Himself has hidden, therein,

in order to constitute the canticle of the truth, of the faith, the canticle to the God of the sciences, to God Creator, Revealer, and Saviour. •

The Centenary of Canonisation of St. Thomas. Therefore, it is that I thank yon for the consolation

which in so opportune a moment and with a sentiment so edifying, you are come to bring Us, and We are happy in confiding to you Our* design to celebrate solemnly the approaching centenary of the canonisation of St. Thomas of Aquin. It is not upon the very anniversary day itself that We can celebrate it, because this date falls in- the month of July, when Our dear students of the divers schools will be dispersed because of the vacations, but rather on their return, when they will be anew reunited-in Rome. We shall celebrate this centenary in rendering glory to God, in thanking Him for having given Us in Thomas of Aquin so beautiful and so wide a revelation of His infinite beauty', of the infinite splendors of that wisdom which He Himself is. We shall edify Ourselves by the example of -this great Saint raised up by God, and who never turned his gaze I a way from God. And since it is the hour of confidences, We tell you that We think of dedicating to him the annual medal, upon which We wish to see represented, in' the measure permitted by the restricted space, the posthumous glory of St. Thomas of Aquin since the first anticipated canonisation which Dante made of him, before John XXII. proclaimed it officially, up to Leo XIII., who of St. Thomas, saluted already as Angelic Doctor by St. Pius V., has made the patron, the protector, the veritable and -properly so called Angel of All the Schools. ~