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| Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Communis", between Plato and Aristotle, by Benozzo Gozzoli (1471). Louvre, Paris. |
"FRIAR Giacomo di Viterbo, Archbishop of Naples, often said to me that he believed, in accordance with the Faith and the Holy Spirit, that our Savior had sent, as doctor of truth to illuminate the world and the universal Church, first the apostle Paul, then Augustine, and finally in these latest days Friar Thomas, whom, he believed, no one would succeed till the end of the world."
─Testimony of Bartolommeo di Capua at the hearing of the case for the canonization of Saint Thomas, August 8, 1319. (Quoted in St. Thomas Aquinas by Jacques Maritain.)
. . . . . . . .
IN ordering the inquiry upon the virtues and miracles of the great Doctor, Pope John XXII had said:
"We believe that Brother Thomas is glorious in heaven, because his life was holy, and his doctrine alone is a miracle."
Then, before an assembly of cardinals, casting from right to left "a look gentle as a ray of sun," he spoke in these terms:
"Venerable Brethren, it would be a great glory for us and for the Church if we could inscribe this servant of God among the Saints.
"Because alone he has done more to enlighten the Church than all the other Doctors put together.
"And in a single year one may profit more from reading what he has written than by studying for a whole lifetime the other theologians."
—Raïssa Maritain: in Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Angel of the Schools, Chap. XXIV.
