March 7 marks the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of Catholic education. While staying at Fossanova Abbey due to poor health, Aquinas prophesied that this location would be his final resting place. Despite being bedridden, Aquinas offered a brief reflection on the Song of Songs when asked for a token of his learning by the monks. Before receiving Holy Communion, Aquinas prostrated himself on the floor and later made a profound profession of faith regarding the Eucharist.
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St. Thomas Aquinas, the patron saint of Catholic education, died on March 7, 1274, at age 49, marking the 750th anniversary in 2024.1 While traveling to Rome amid health issues, he stopped at Fossanova Abbey south of Rome to recover.1
Aquinas prophesied to his companion Reginaldo in the abbey cloister: “Reginaldo, my son, here will be my rest forever, here I will live because I have desired it.”1 This statement moved the accompanying Dominican friars to tears, foretelling his death there.1
Bedridden and worsening, Aquinas offered monks a reflection on the Song of Songs from the Old Testament when they sought his wisdom.1 He demonstrated his enduring role as educator even in his final days.1
Aquinas prostrated himself in tears to receive Holy Communion and professed deep faith in the Real Presence.1 He affirmed belief in Jesus as true God and true man, Son of God and the Virgin Mary, aligning fully with Church teaching.1
Witnesses recalled him uttering words of devotion, likely the opening of his hymn "Adoro Te Devote," sung today during Eucharistic adoration.1
Approaching the Blessed Sacrament, Aquinas prayed: “I receive you, price of the redemption of my soul, I receive you, viaticum of my pilgrimage.”1 He reflected on studying, preaching, and teaching for love of Christ, submitting any errors to the Holy Church of Rome.1
The next day, he received the anointing of the sick and peacefully surrendered his spirit to God.1 His biographer, Friar Guillermo de Tocco, documented these events.1
Investigate Aquinas’s final prophetic statement on his burial site
St. Thomas Aquinas's final months were marked by profound mystical experiences that led him to cease his intellectual labors, culminating in his peaceful death at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova in 1274. While Catholic tradition reveres him as a doctor of the Church whose life exemplified humility and union with God, the provided sources do not record any specific "final prophetic statement" by Aquinas concerning his burial site. Instead, they emphasize his supernatural revelation during Mass, his decision to stop writing because all his works seemed "worthless" or "like straw" in comparison , his reception of Viaticum with deep devotion , and his death en route to the Council of Lyons. These accounts highlight a contemplative silence and trust in divine mystery rather than personal prophecies about burial. Fossanova, where he died, became his de facto burial place, with his relics later honored there, but no explicit prophetic utterance on this matter appears in the sources.
In December 1273, during Mass at the chapel of St. Nicholas in Naples, Aquinas experienced a transformative revelation that rendered his vast theological output— including the unfinished Summa Theologiae—as insignificant . He confided to his secretary Reginald: "everything he had written until then 'was worthless'", or more vividly, "Everything I have written seems but straw to me compared to what I have seen". This episode underscores Aquinas's humility and recognition that human reason, even at its pinnacle, falls infinitely short of God's beauty, fully unveiled only in heaven . Scholars interpret this as a mystical silencing, not due to physical incapacity—Aquinas remained lucid, dictating a brief treatise and praying fervently—but a voluntary absorption in divine contemplation.
Pope Benedict XVI recounts a biographer's episode where Aquinas, praying before a crucifix, sought confirmation of his writings' fidelity. Christ replied, "You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What is your reward?" Aquinas responded: "Nothing but Yourself, Lord!" . This dialogue encapsulates his life: intellect illumined by prayer, ever oriented toward God.
Traveling to the Ecumenical Council in Lyons at Pope Gregory X's summons, Aquinas fell ill and was hosted by Fossanova's Cistercian monks. There, amid growing meditation, he received Viaticum "with deeply devout sentiments" and "uttered a fervent prayer", demonstrating retained mental acuity until the end. No sources detail a statement on burial, prophetic or otherwise. His interment at Fossanova followed naturally, as the abbey became a pilgrimage site; Pope Paul VI later venerated it during the seventh centenary of Aquinas's death .
Aquinas's theology of prophecy, referenced in the sources, provides context but no personal application here. Prophecy involves divine revelation of remote truths, especially future contingents, known unchangeably through God's causal knowledge rather than changeable causes . It is "divine inspiration... which announces the outcomes of things with immutable truth", yet Aquinas's final silence aligns more with mystical union than prophetic speech.
The sources systematically reviewed—papal audiences , scholarly analyses , and Aquinas's own works —focus on his humility, scriptural depth, and prophetic theology without mentioning a "final prophetic statement on his burial site." Doc 4 notes graces of ecstasy in his last year and credible testimonies of revelation motivating silence, but ties this to ceasing writing, not burial prophecy. Docs 11 and others discuss burial in Christ's Passion, irrelevant to Aquinas personally.
This gap may reflect hagiographic traditions outside these texts, such as canonization processes cited indirectly. Fossanova's role as his tomb is affirmed , later honored by Paul VI , but without prophetic attribution.
In summary, while Aquinas's end exemplifies the primacy of divine mystery over human achievement, the provided sources offer no evidence of a final prophetic statement on his burial site, instead portraying a saintly death steeped in prayer and Viaticum at Fossanova.