Thomas Aquinas and Priestly Formation: From His Life to Vatican II

Abstract: This article outlines the relationship between Aquinas's thought and priestly formation, beginning in the thirteenth century and ending with the twentieth-century Magisterium. In relation to the other articles in this special issue, this article is meant to serve as a kind of introduction, providing important historical context for those more specialized treatments of the relevance of Aquinas's thought for different aspects of priestly formation today. Beginning with his personal formation for the priesthood, this article examines Aquinas's role in the formation of priests during his own life, and then the subsequent role of Aquinas's thought in priestly formation before the Council of Trent, and during the post-Tridentine period until the twentieth century.