Today marks the 750th anniversary of what the Thomist Josef Pieper called the providential ‘Silence of Saint Thomas’. (More on that, perchance, in another post). 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
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.