It was on this day 751 years ago that Saint Thomas Aquinas stopped writing. Or, more properly, dictating – for he had scribes write down his rapid thoughts, at times, I have heard, three at a time!
The great 20th century Thomist, Josef Pieper, describes this as the providential ‘Silence of Saint Thomas’. In his book by that title, Pieper describes the well-known, but mysterious, event in chapel of Saint Nicholas in the Dominican house at Bologna, on the feast of the saint, December 6th, 1273. It was on that day that Thomas received a vision, about which he told no one, but after which, he wrote no more. When his disciple, Reginald, urged him at least to complete his unfinished Summa, Thomas replied:
Reginald, I cannot. All that I have written seems to me like straw in comparison to the things I have seen, the things that have been unveiled to me
Why providential? Well, Pieper says that theology can never be ‘summed up’ in one book, even one as great as Thomas’ Summa Theologica. As Saint John the Beloved says in the last line of his Gospel:
But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Theology is a journey, for the Church to the end of time, and for each one of us to the end of our lives, to learn of God, the Trinity, His Word in Scripture, of Christ, the Word made Flesh, the Saints, the Sacraments, and the rich tapestry of Magisterial teaching.
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has a delightful and detailed description of the connection between Saint Thomas and Saint Nicholas, that is well worth a read, or a listen.