Late Life and Death
Chapter Nine
Late Life and Death
“Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”
—Thomas Aquinas
As soon as Thomas Aquinas made his new home in Naples, he was visited by several notables who sought his advice. Among these visits was a rather notable one with the cardinal legate of the Holy See and the bishop of Capua. With these men, Aquinas discussed at length all manner of theological difficulties.
When Thomas wasn’t engaged in discussion, he was usually writing. He would finish up several more works during his stay at Naples, as well as adding to his Summa theologiae . What was remembered more than anything else, however, were Aquinas’s continued, alleged supernatural encounters. As later dictated by his secretary, Aquinas was found on one occasion to be in animated conversation in the middle of the night. No one was in his room with him, but people could hear Aquinas’s voice engaged in a heated debate with an unknown presence.
Once the conversation had ended, Aquinas quickly alerted his secretary, “Light the lamp!” The secretary then dutifully lit a lamp and brought it over to him. In the illumination, it could be seen that he was indeed by himself. Aquinas contended that just moments before, he was visited by a presence who instructed him to write. To the amazement of his secretary, Aquinas then began to vigorously write a complex treatise as it if had just been dictated to him from beyond. Wishing to know where the source of his inspiration had come from, the bewildered secretary is said to have thrown himself down before Aquinas and pleaded with him that he reveal who it was that he had been speaking to just a few moments prior.
Initially, Aquinas demurred, “It little befits you to know.” But the secretary was insistent and continued to beg for him to reveal his source, crying out, “In the name of God, give me this little proof of friendship.” Apparently unable to resist an order given with such conviction, Aquinas finally relented. He informed his faithful secretary that it was none other than the Apostles Paul and Peter who had dropped down from heaven to speak with him. As his amazed secretary took this information in, Aquinas then added the caveat, “But in the name of God I command you not to breath a word of this to anyone during my lifetime.” The astonished secretary apparently kept his promise and did indeed not mention the unusual experience until after Thomas Aquinas left this world.
Another even more interesting account is in regard to Aquinas allegedly seeing the spirit of a certain Dominican professor by the name of Father Romain, whom he had been acquainted with during his time in Paris. What makes this alleged encounter so remarkable is that Aquinas supposedly had this visitation with the spirit of the deceased man before word had reached Naples of his demise. Father Romain had apparently died just a few days before Aquinas’s vision, and owing to the fact of how slow information traveled from city to city in those days, no one in Naples yet knew that he had died.
Yet before anyone else had any inkling of his passing, Aquinas reportedly came forward with his startling account of speaking with Father Romain’s disembodied ghost. Romain allegedly reported to Aquinas that he had just spent a few days in purgatory and was now on his way to “the happiness of heaven.” Aquinas’s peers in Naples didn’t know what to make of the strange account, but when a few days later they learned that Romain was dead, they were completely shocked at Aquinas’s foreknowledge.
As dedicated as he had been for most of his life, in his later years, Aquinas drew even closer to his faith. He was said to frequently fall into bouts of religious ecstasy in which he was so focused on his exuberant prayers and praise that it was hard to snap him out of it or pull him away from his devotion. Nevertheless, in 1274, he had to momentarily take leave of his holy revelry when the pope had need of Aquinas’s services.
The Vatican, long wanting to solve the problem of the great schism between the western Latin half of Christendom and the eastern Greek half, summoned Thomas Aquinas to a council meeting in Lyon, modern-day France, requesting him to bring his book on the Greek errors to help heal the rift between the two Catholic churches. Aquinas was much older now and not quite so accustomed to traveling as he used to be in his younger days, but nevertheless, he heeded the call of the pope and set off for his mission.
During the course of the journey, Aquinas apparently suffered a very nasty fall. As he was traveling down the road from Terracina, his mule passed under a broken tree branch hanging over the road. Aquinas was struck in the head by the branch, causing him to fall to the ground. It’s not clear if he lost consciousness from the blow, but he was apparently so still that his companions feared he was dead. After a moment, he stirred, and his friends were able to revive him back to a well enough state to continue their journey.
From here, they arrived at the castle of Maenza in which Aquinas’s niece Francesca and her husband Count Annibal de Ceccano lived. It was determined that they should pay Francesca and the count a visit. His traveling companions were perhaps hoping the rest would allow Aquinas enough breathing room to recuperate. To their great dismay, he only seemed to get worse. While he was accompanied by his kin at the dinner table, he grew faint and seemed to have no desire for food. Nevertheless, after a few days, Aquinas left for Rome on the back of his mule, hoping to complete his mission. It wasn’t long before he fell ill once again and had to be taken to a monastery they came across along the way.
Arriving at the monastery of Fossanova on February 10, 1274, Aquinas once again sought rest, but instead of growing stronger from his bedrest, he only grew weaker. As it became clear that his life was leaving him, he gave a confession of his whole life and entreated the monks to allow him to take communion one last time. Shortly thereafter, on the morning of March 7, 1274, Thomas Aquinas passed away at age 49. He wasn’t able to complete the immediate mission the pope had given him, but although this one temporal task had not been fulfilled, by the time of his passing he had completed much more than anyone had ever expected.