The University of Santo Tomas Center for Thomistic Studies (CTS) commemorated the 750th anniversary of the deaths of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure by joining an international colloquium in Rome from December 5 to 7, 2024, and holding a local forum in honor of the two intellectual luminaries of the Catholic Church on December 18, 2024, at the UST Main Building.
To honor their enduring contributions, the Centre Saint-Louis des Français, in collaboration with Franciscan and Dominican academic institutions, organized a colloquium that explored their intellectual and pastoral legacies. The event was structured along two lines: one examining their philosophical and theological teachings and the other analyzing the historical re-appropriations of their doctrines. Each session sought to renew people’s approach to their works and better define the specificity of their sanctity.
The USTCTS Coordinator Fr. Felix delos Reyes, O.P., participated in the forum. His attendance underscores the CTS’s commitment to engage with global scholarship and contributing to the ongoing discourse on the works of Aquinas and Bonaventure.
In addition to participating in the international colloquium, CTS also organized a local celebration through the 4th Academic Discourse of the Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics (CTRSE), that featured papers that tackle the works of Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Boethius. Dr. Angeli Francis Rivera presented a paper on Aquinas, Mr. Joshua Cedric Gundayao discussed Bonaventure, and Prof. Jovito Carino explored the contributions of Boethius.
The Saints Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, both scholars and mendicant friars from central Italy, have left an indelible mark on Western thought. Aquinas, on the one hand, is known for integrating Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology; Bonaventure, on the other hand, is celebrated for his mystical and theological works. Aquinas and Bonaventure both contributed significantly to the understanding of how intellectual life, particularly the life of study, is intertwined with holiness. Their lives attest that the life of study and intellectual engagement can be not only compatible with holiness but also an essential path toward it. Their writings demonstrate that intellectual pursuit and contemplation are not merely intellectual exercises but avenues for deepening one’s relationship with God and growing in holiness.
The international colloquium and the local academic discourse collectively paid tribute to the holiness of intelligence and the intelligence of holiness embodied by Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. These events celebrate their profound insights and hope to encourage continuing engagements with their thoughts by scholars and thinkers worldwide.
