by Wyatt North
“Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
Unlike many of his contemporaries among ecclesiastical scholars and philosophers, St. Thomas Aquinas did not view faith and reason as mutually exclusive but rather as divine gifts from God the Creator. He never studied without first praying for insight and understanding, and when insight and understanding were slow in coming, he would also fast. He had tremendous influence on theologians and philosophers alike. St. Francis de Sales, St. Philip Neri, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Vincent Ferrer, Pope St. Pius V, and St. Antoninus are all known to have been avid students of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Among philosophers, he has been referred to as the “Christian Aristotle.” In his encyclical, Aeterni Patris, Pope Leo XIII said that “reason, borne on the wings of Thomas, can scarcely rise higher, while faith could scarcely expect more or stronger aids from reason than those which she has already obtained through Thomas."
“Shun useless conversation. We lose by it both time and the spirit of devotion.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
Those who knew St. Thomas Aquinas attested to the divine assistance he received in the form of visions and ecstasies. Thomas himself said that he learned more through prayer and contemplation than from studying the words of men. His contemporaries wrote of the Blessed Virgin appearing to him to let him know that both his life and his work found favor with God. St. Peter and St. Paul reportedly helped him interpret a difficult Scripture passage, and St. Dominic encouraged him to overcome his concerns about being unworthy to receive a doctorate.
“Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas described two types of fear: servile fear and filial fear. Servile fear helps keep us from sinning because we fear God’s punishment. Filial fear, however, keeps us from sinning because we fear offending and being separated from the Father. It is filial fear that is counted among the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. According to Thomas, “filial fear and hope cling together and perfect one another.” So, while fear itself is not a theological virtue, in the view of Thomas Aquinas, it works with theological virtues like hope, love, and faith towards our salvation.
“Tribulation is a gift from God—one that he especially gives His special friends.”
– St. Thomas More
Thomas More endured great tribulations toward the end of his life, all in service of God and the Catholic Church. Most people remember him for his defense of the Church against King Henry VIII’s declaration that the king was not subject to papal rule, which led to the establishment of the Church of England. Though Thomas More would be martyred and eventually canonized for his refusal to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England, he was not a cleric himself, but rather a lawyer. There was a point in his life when Thomas did contemplate giving up the practice of law in favor of religious life. For two years (1503-1504), he lived next door to a Carthusian monastery. He was so impressed by their simple life of piety that he joined in their spiritual exercises, but he ultimately chose to remain in the secular world.
“Either Christ has a Church in the world continually and until the end of the world, or else He has a Church sometimes, and sometimes not at all. Could we think that He had a Church while He was here Himself, and perhaps awhile after, but mysteriously none since? . . . No . . . that can in no way be, since He must necessarily still preserve His Church somewhere; otherwise, how could He be with His followers continually until the end of the world?”
– St. Thomas More
Thomas More was first elected to Parliament in 1504, married, and rose through the ranks to the position of Privy Counselor in 1514. When he married Jane Colt in 1505, it was for love. They had four children together before Jane died in 1512. His second marriage, less than a month after Jane’s death, seems to have been motivated by a need to provide a stepmother to care for his four motherless children. Alice Harpur Middleton, a wealthy widow with one child fit the bill, though she was neither attractive nor particularly agreeable. Those who knew Thomas disapproved of his choice for a second wife and with the haste of the marriage. By all reports, it was not a happy marriage, but Thomas adopted Alice’s daughter and treated her as one of his own children. It is certainly fitting that St. Thomas More is the patron saint of difficult marriages and adopted children (as well as lawyers, politicians, and civil servants).
“The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will.”
– St. Thomas More
King Henry VIII recognized Thomas More’s legal acumen and his standing as a theologian and writer and rewarded him with positions of increasing responsibility and trust. In turn, the king had Thomas More’s complete loyalty. In 1529, More was made Lord Chancellor, and for nine years, he staunchly defended the Catholic faith in England, prosecuting heretics and justifying Henry’s confidence in him. The turning point came in 1530 while Henry was attempting to get his marriage to his wife Catherine annulled so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. He asked Thomas to sign a letter to the pope supporting the king’s annulment request. Thomas refused. The relationship between the king and his Lord Chancellor deteriorated with each step Henry took to defy papal authority. In 1532, Thomas More resigned rather than continue in a position that was antithetical to his identity and values as a Catholic. The following year, he chose to write a letter of congratulations rather than attend Anne Boleyn’s coronation as Queen of England. Henry saw that as an affront and an offense and started building a case against him. Thomas used his considerable legal skills to counter the bogus charges, but the breaking point came in 1534 when More voiced all but one of the attestations included in an oath he was required to take. He agreed to accept Anne as queen and the legitimacy of the marriage, but he refused to acknowledge the king as the head of the church. That refusal sealed his fate.
“A faint faith is better than a strong heresy.”
– St. Thomas More
When Thomas More went on trial for treason in 1534, he faced a jury that included three of Anne Boleyn’s relatives: her brother, father, and uncle. It was his refusal to endorse King Henry XIII’s request for an annulment of his marriage to Queen Catherine in order to marry Anne that triggered the events that led Thomas to this point. It took the court only fifteen minutes to convict him and impose the usual sentence for treason 16th century England: hanging, drawing, and quartering. Henry showed a measure of mercy for his former Lord Chancellor by commuting the sentence to decapitation. Standing on the scaffold for his refusal to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England, his final words to observers were “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” Pope Leo XIII beatified More as a martyr in 1886, and Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1935.
“If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.”
– St. Thomas of Villanova
Though he was Archbishop of Valencia, Spain, Thomas of Villanova cut a rather shabby and somewhat comical figure, the typical absent-minded, shabbily dressed, professor. He was referred to during his life as “the almsgiver” and “the father of the poor” for his great charity toward the poor and unfortunate, with a special affinity for orphans, the sick, and poor women lacking dowries. He lived with great austerity, frequently giving away his own possessions to those who were in need. He wore the same habit for decades, mending it himself until it practically fell apart. He sold the straw mattress he slept on and gave the money to the poor. When he was given funds by his cathedral chapter to furnish and decorate his residence, Archbishop Thomas donated the money to repair a loca
l hospital. Nobody that came to the door of the residence was turned away without being fed and given some money. While he was personally generous to a fault, Thomas’s approach to charity was a practical one aimed not only at meeting the immediate needs of the poor but also helping them learn to help themselves. On his deathbed, Thomas of Villanova gave instructions for the distribution of all his money to the poor.
“He who is humble easily obeys everyone, fears to offend anyone, is at peace with everyone, is kind with all.”
– St. Thomas of Villanova
When Thomas of Villanova reluctantly became Archbishop of Valencia in 1544, he was taking on the governance of an Archdiocese in which the top position had remained vacant for a century. He approached his mission in a very practical and methodical manner. He conducted his own assessment by visiting every parish to see firsthand what needs existed—social as well as religious. He established a college for Moorish converts, founded a seminary, and implemented a plan to provide social services and charitable assistance for the Moors and others in need. Everything he did was intended to return the archdiocese to health—spiritually and materially. The list of his efforts and accomplishments includes: addressing social ills such as violence, divorce, concubinage; closing the underground prisons; establishing an orphanage; holding Mass early enough for working class people to attend; and holding laypeople and clergy alike to a higher moral standard.
“Dismiss all anger and look a little into yourself. Remember that he of whom you are speaking is your brother, and, as he is in the way of salvation, God can make him a Saint, notwithstanding his present weaknesses. You may fall into the same faults or perhaps into a worse fault. But supposing that you remain upright, to whom are you indebted for it, if not to the pure mercy of God?”
– St. Thomas of Villanova
St. Thomas got his surname from Vilanova de los Infantes, the town where he was educated, not from the town of his birth in 1488, Fuenlana in Castile. He got his charitable disposition from his parents, who were known for their help to the poor, though they were of modest means themselves. They sold only as much of their corn crop as was necessary to meet he family’s basic needs, using the rest of it to bake bread to distribute to the poor. In fact, a good portion of everything that was produced on their small estate was earmarked for the needy. As a little boy, Thomas was displaying the same charitable nature. When he had no way to meet a need on his own, he would ask his parents to help him provide. Even in childhood, Thomas saw a personally austere life as the way to give more to the poor.
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“You must never ask Jesus to wait.”
– St. Ursula Ledochowska
Julia Maria Ledochowska, born in Austria in 1865, needed to look no farther than her own family for examples of piety and holiness. Her uncle was Primate of Poland, and her older sister founded the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver. The family moved to Poland when Julia Maria was eighteen, and she entered the convent of the Ursuline Sisters in Krakow, taking the name “Maria Ursula of Jesus” and dedicating her life to children. In 1907, Mother Ursula, now the convent’s prioress, went with another nun to St. Petersburg, Russia at the request of Monsignor Constantine Budkiewicz, where they founded a new convent and worked with immigrant children. When World War I broke out seven years later, Mother Ursula, still an Austrian citizen, was expelled and fled to Sweden, and the Monsignor, a Polish national, was martyred by the Bolsheviks. In neutral Sweden, Mother Ursula worked tirelessly on behalf of Poles living in exile, and when Poland regained its independence in 1918, she and her Ursuline sisters returned to Poland with dozens of orphans. She founded her own Congregation, the Ursuline Sisters of the Heart of Jesus in Agony, dedicated to educating and training children and youth and serving the poor and oppressed. The congregation expanded, with new houses and missions in Poland, Italy, and France. She continued her work until her death in 1939, as Europe was once again on the brink of war.
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“Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity.”
– St. Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent de Paul, born in 1581, earned the money to finance his studies in theology at the University of Toulouse by tutoring the children of a wealthy family. Five years after his ordination, the ship Vincent was traveling on was captured, and he was sold as a slave in Tunis. He escaped and returned to France two years later. Most of his life was devoted to preaching missions and helping the poor, and later, convicts as well. The need was greater than he could meet on his own, so he established the Ladies of Charity, a lay institute for women, and a religious institute called the Congregation of Priests of the Missions, commonly known today as the Vincentians. One of his goals was to improve the instruction and development of priests, and his work toward that end laid the foundation for today’s seminaries.
“We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.”
– St. Vincent de Paul
The events in the life of St. Vincent de Paul that took place after the ship he was traveling on was captured by Barbary pirates read like an adventure novel. He was sold as a slave and underwent several changes in ownership before he escaped. He was sold first to a fisherman but was resold quickly because he got too seasick to work on a boat. His second owner was a spagyrical physician—part herbalist and part alchemist—whose work Vincent found very interesting. When the physician died, Vincent was sold to a French former priest and Franciscan who had converted to Islam and had three wives. One of his wives, a Muslim, had conversations with Vincent about his faith and came to believe that Christianity is the true faith, a conclusion the shared with her husband. He admitted that he regretted renouncing Christianity, and he resolved to flee back to France and take his slave, Vincent, with him. They made their escape some months later in a small boat, landing on French soil in June 1607.
“It is God Himself who receives what we give in charity, and is it not an incomparable happiness to give Him what belongs to Him, and what we have received from His goodness alone?”
– St. Vincent de Paul
In 1617, Father Vincent became parish priest of Chatillon·les-Dombes, France. His first sermon there so inspired two society matrons that they gave up worldly diversions in favor of doing good in their community. One of them brought to Father Vincent’s attention a family stricken with illness that was making it difficult for them to tend one another’s needs. Father Vincent’s sermon in charity that Sunday resulted in the afflicted family being inundated with food, leading him to conclude that charitable efforts need to be better coordinated. He met with the women, and they agreed to establish an association of women who would take turns providing for the poor. This Confraternity of Charity, also known as the Ladies of Charity, was for lay women, and it was an essential element of Father Vincent’s approach to renewing the Church in the countryside: a mission followed by the establishment of a Confraternity of Charity to continue building the Christian community.
“You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy – the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud.”
– St. Vincent de Paul
The Confraternities of Charity, or simply “Charities,” were established by Father Vincent as part of his strategy for conducting missions as he traveled throughout the French countryside. Wherever there was a mission, a new Charity would be founded to carry on the work of the mission. Different village charities had somewhat different rules, but in general, there were to be 20 members of each Charity—each a virtuous woman, married or single, whose family agreed with her decision to become a “servant of the poor.” Meeting one Sunday a month, taking turns visiting and caring for the sick and poor, being devout Catholics, and serving Jesus Christ in the person of the poor—that was the commitment they made. In som
e villages, male Charities called Priests and Brothers of the Mission were established as well to assist the indigent and to provide job training for youth.
“If humble souls are contradicted, they remain calm; if they are calumniated, they suffer with patience; if they are little esteemed, neglected, or forgotten, they consider that their due; if they are weighed down with occupations, they perform them cheerfully.”