Denver, Colo., Jan 28, 2023 / 05:00 am
The skull of St. Thomas Aquinas has arrived at the Dominican Convent of Toulouse, France, and placed in a new reliquary as the order celebrates the 700th anniversary this year of the saint’s canonization in the Catholic Church.
The new reliquary was created by Augustin Frison-Roche and was blessed during a Mass on Jan. 27 in the church of the convent. It was then transferred to the Jacobin Convent of Toulouse for the opening Mass of the seventh centenary of the canonization of the Italian saint, theologian, and philosopher on Saturday, Jan. 28, the saint’s feast day. A procession of the relics followed the Mass.
St. Thomas Aquinas died March 7, 1274, and was canonized on July 18, 1323. He was made a doctor of the Church in 1567.
The opening of the reliquary took place in the Dominican convent’s sacristy in the presence of Monsignor Jean-Louis Bruguès, OP; the chancellor of the Toulouse Diocese, Father J.-François Galinier-Pallerola; and prior of the Toulouse convent, Father Philippe Jaillot, OP.