The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-03-11
ST. THOMAS COLLEGE
PATRoNAL FEAST CELEBRATED.

pdSiOH 0diAl. E11SH MASS was SOi0IH-
nized at 10 o'clock, with Rev. Joseph
1Corrigan as celebrant, Rev. James
.Cleary as deacon, and Rev. James
O'Hara as sub-deacon. Bishop Lawler
presided in the sanctuary. The Col
lege Choir, under the direction of Pro-
fessor Pardo, rendered Bordese's Mass
in e fat. At noon dinner was served
in the seniors dining hall, which was
tastefully adorned for the occasion.
The College Orchestra enlivened the
meal with a choice programme of mu-
sic.
Among the guests were the following
priests: Rev. J. M. Cleary, Rev. R.
Hughes, Rev. J. Gaughan, Rev. j. Gull
lot, Rev. j. G. Byrne, Rev. E. Wilbee,
Rev. ]. NJ. Reardon, Rev. P. Bandini,
Rev. R. ]. Fitzgerald, Rev NJ O'Brien,
Rev. w. Hart, Rev. ]. J. O'Brien, Rev.
T. Rehill, Rev. DR.. Ryan, Rev. J. Cor
figan, Rev. T. Minogue, Rev. J. Klein,
Rev. P. Lucey, Rev. FIR. Victorin, Rev.
a. Kaesan, Rev. F. Mccarthy, Rev. c.
Eremin, Rev. P. Loeffen, Rev. w.
BuScn, Rev. w. L. walsh.
Besides the visiting priests there
we're also present forty-fve students of
The ST. Paul Seminary and
alumni of the College.
/ At the High Mass Rev. DR.. McGin-
bis preached an eloquent eulogy on
St. Thomas Aquinas. We subjoin a
synopsis:
st. Thomas" he said, was blessed
by God with prodigious intellectual
powers. His mission in the Church
was of a particular nature. He ap-
pears to have been selected by circum-
stances and nature to make a syn
thesis of Christian doctrines. The
preceding ages were periods of pure,
Nearly all the controversies were cen
tered about the doctrines of faith: the
Weapons used in the combat were
drawn chiefly from the armory of the
Divine Deposit; revelation, rather than
reason, was appealed to in the ma
jority of cases in order to settle any
disputed question. In Alexandria there
soon arose a. school of teachers who
endeavored to resuscitate the defunct
and the dying doctrines of Plato, and
to apply them in whole or in part to
an explanation or a refutation of
Christianity. Clement and Origen
placed themselves as strong barrier
between the Church and the array of
Neo-Platonists who would mar her
beauty Even these two champions,
however, as last resort would have
recourse to the Scriptures to defend
their positions.
Speculation in matters of religion
had ever produced heretics, because
they had followed the principle that
Faith and Science were irreconcila-
ble-a principle that to the present
hour continues to count it's votaries
among the misguided minds of the day.
Here and there during the Middle
Ages a sporadic CLEAN in the gloom
of the circumambient darkness and
withering blight that had fallen upon
Europe revealed a man who, like
Erigena, strove to apply the principles
of pure reason to matters of Faith, for
the elucidation of the latter. Former
ly when a heresy had reared it's pois-
onous head above the horizon of the
Christian world, valiant champion
an Augustine, Jerome, Basil, a
Chrysostom, a Cyril-had suddenly
arisen and had struck down the traitor,
and eradicated the venomous reptile
from the fair world-garden of the
Church But these were more or less
individual efforts aimed at particular
foe. Later on Abelard with his Dia-
lectics introduced considerable con-
fusion in the contemporaneous world
of thought.
"The thirteenth century witnessed a
revival of the work begun by Anselm.
st. Thomas Aquinas now appeared as
the divinely-sent genius who was to
gather up the scattered fragments OF
arguments, doctrines, and disquisitions
left by the early Fathers, and in one
synthetic grasp to present them to the
Church as compact, solid and
thoroughly rational body of teachings
He was eminently fitted for this hercu-
lean task. Endowed by nature with
the prestige of noble birth, incompara-
BILE talent, and an unusually powerful
mind; with a soul embellished in the
order of grace with the choicest gifts
of purity, humility, and intense faith; !;
with a spirit free from the cares OF
the world, and safe under the white
mantle of St Dominic-St. Thomas
stood forth as the rightful representa-.
tive of all that was high, and pure
and intellectual In the Church. His
profound grasp of Scripture, patristic
teaching, and the power of reason were
all turned upon the task of reconciling
Faith with the highest principles Of
rational thought. Sounding the very
depths Of the Aristotelian system Of
thought he extracted therefrom the
quintessence of logical demonstration
and applied it to the doctrines OF Faith
! with such consummate success, that