Article Published

Article_art-st-thomas-aquinas-high-school-theologian

Feature News | Monday, January 28, 2019

Art at Aquinas: High school named for prominent theologian

FORT LAUDERDALE | St. Thomas Aquinas was a preeminent educator and theologian, and the namesake of a respected high school in South Florida. But his renown came at a price: antagonism from his own family.

Born in the 13th century in a castle in Sicily, Thomas was sent to a Benedictine monastery at 5. His well-to-do family expected him to join that order. But he was drawn more to the ideals of the Dominicans.

In reaction, his brothers kidnapped him and kept him in a castle tower for more than a year. Finally, his mother relented and helped him escape.

Once free, he went to Paris, then Cologne to finish his studies. He became a busy professor, serving twice as master regent in Paris, and as a papal theologian.

Thomas was also a productive writer, turning out more than 60 works in less than five decades. Best known is the Summa Theologiae, a sweeping compendium of theology and Christian philosophy that is still quoted today.

Photographer:

Yet he never finished the Summa: After an episode of spiritual ecstasy in a chapel, he abandoned all of his work. “Such secrets have been revealed to me that all that I have written seems like straw to me,” is all he said. He died after a fall in 1274.

Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint of philosophers, theologians, scholars, students and universities. His feast day is Jan. 28.

His namesake school in Fort Lauderdale was founded in 1936 as a branch of St. Anthony, the oldest Catholic parish in Broward County. With the motto “Not for school but for life we learn,” the school graduated its first nine students in 1940.

By then, the school still had only 42 students. But Msgr. John J. O'Looney, pastor at St. Anthony, built a new complex on 26 acres in the western part of the city. Renamed Central Catholic High, the school moved to its present location in 1952. In 1961, the school chose St. Thomas Aquinas as its patron.

Over the decades, St. Thomas Aquinas High has expanded in educational technology, with computer-based imagery in chemical, biological and electronic classes. And at its performing arts center, students grow in dance, music and drama.

Nor have athletics been forgotten: The school has run basketball and highly-ranked football programs since the 1940s.

Powered by Parish Mate | E-system

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply