ing
Supernatural manifestations, such as visions, ecstasies, and
revelations; but we shall find what is of far greater use to us--a
Catechism on Devotion, Prayer, and Contemplation.

* * * * *

The main features of the Life of S. Thomas of Aquin are known to most of
those who are likely to read this book. His life at first sight seems of
such an even tenor that there is but little to record. Yet when we
penetrate beneath the surface we realize that he lived in stirring days,
and that his short span of fifty years was passed in the full light of
the world of the thirteenth century. Thomas was born in the beginning of
the year 1225 in the castle of Rocca-Secca, the ancestral home of the
Counts of Aquino, in the kingdom of Sicily. His future glory was
foretold to his mother, the Countess Theodora, by a hermit of that
neighbourhood who also foretold that his parents would endeavour to make
him a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, but that God had
other designs for him, since he was to be a Friar Preacher, a member of
the Order of the great S. Dominic who had just gone to his reward. The
prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. At the early age of five years he
was sent to the Abbey to be educated among the young nobles of the day,
as was then the custom. Even thus early he showed a remarkable maturity
of character, and his biographer, William of Tocco, dwells with delight
on the calm reserve of his childish days and on that eager seeking after
God which was to be his future glory.[3]

From Monte Cassino Thomas passed to Naples to complete his studies. Here
he became conscious of his vocation, and offered himself to the
Dominicans. The Prior of the convent at Naples at that time was Father
John of S. Julian, who later became Patriarch of Jerusalem[4]; he gave
the habit of the Order to Thomas, who was then but fourteen years of
age. His parents were indignant at this step, and did all in their power
to shake his determination. Fearing their recourse to the violent
methods then so common, the Dominicans sent Thomas to the convent of
Santa Sabina at Rome. But S. Thomas's brothers, at their mother's
bidding, seized upon the young man and carried him off in his religious
habit to his mother who kept him imprisoned for nearly two years.[5]
During this time of anxiety nothing disturbed the Saint's equanimity,
and he made good use of his time by studying the Bible, the _Book of the
Sentenc