Saint of the Day, January 28

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Angelic Doctor, was born to the noble Aquino family near Roccasecca in the Kingdom of Sicily. Sent as a boy to the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino and later to the University of Naples, he was drawn against his family's fierce opposition into the newly founded Order of Preachers. His brothers imprisoned him for over a year in the family castle, but he held fast to his vocation and eventually made his way to Paris and Cologne, where he studied under Saint Albert the Great.