Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and the most influential theologian of the medieval Church. Born at Roccasecca to a noble family that opposed his vocation and held him captive for a year, he studied at Naples, Paris and Cologne under Albert the Great, taught at Paris, and wrote commentaries on Aristotle and scripture, the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologica, which he left unfinished when he stopped writing in December 1273. He died on the way to the Council of Lyon. Canonized in 1323 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567, his synthesis of faith and reason remains the foundation of Catholic theology.