📍Roccasecca, 03038 Frosinone, Lazio, Italy
“I was born Tommaso d'Aquino around 1225 at Roccasecca castle in the Kingdom of Sicily, the son of a count. My family intended me for Benedictine monasticism at the prestigious Monte Cassino. I chose instead to join the Dominicans, which my family considered a disgrace. They kidnapped me and held me in the family castle for over a year trying to dissuade me. I remained committed. I studied with Albert the Great and spent my career producing the Summa Theologica — the systematic synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy. Near the end of my life I had a mystical experience and said that everything I had written seemed like straw compared to what I had seen. I died in 1274 on my way to the Council of Lyon.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📷 Location image · via Wikimedia Commons
Sources: Chesterton, G.K. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1933), Sheed & Ward; Weisheipl, J. Friar Thomas D'Aquino (1974), Doubleday