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Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

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Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PUST), also known as the Angelicum or Collegio Angelico (in honor of its patron, the Doctor Angelicus Thomas Aquinas), is a pontifical university located in the historic center of Rome, Italy. The Angelicum is administered by the Dominican Order and is the order's central locus of Thomistic theology and philosophy.

The Angelicum is coeducational and offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology, philosophy, canon law, and social sciences, as well as certificates and diplomas in related areas. Courses are offered in Italian and some in English. The Angelicum is staffed by clergy and laity and serves both religious and lay students from around the world.

The Angelicum has its roots in the Dominican mission to study and to teach truth. This mission is reflected in the order's motto, "Veritas". The distinctively pedagogical character of the Dominican apostolate as intended by Saint Dominic de Guzman in 1214 at the birth of the order, "the first order instituted by the Church with an academic mission", is succinctly expressed by another of the Order's mottos, contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere, (to contemplate and to bear the fruits of contemplation to others). Pope Honorius III approved the Order of Preachers in December 1216 and January 1217. On 21 January 1217 the papal bull Gratiarum omnium confirmed the Order's pedagogical mission by granting its members the right to preach universally, a power formerly dependent on local episcopal authorization.

Saint Dominic established priories focused on study and preaching that became the Order's first studia generalia, at the Parisian convent of St. Jacques in 1217, at Bologna in 1218, at Palencia and Montpellier in 1220, and at Oxford before his death in 1221. By 1219 Pope Honorius III had invited Dominic and companions to take up residence at the ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina, which they did by early 1220. In May 1220 at Bologna the Order's first General Chapter mandated that each convent of the Order maintain a studium. The official foundation of the Dominican studium conventuale at Rome, which would grow into the Angelicum, occurred with the legal transfer of the Santa Sabina complex from Pope Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on 5 June 1222.

St. Hyacinth of Poland and companions Bl. Ceslaus, Herman of Germany, and Henry of Moravia were among the first to study at the studium of Santa Sabina where "sacred studies flourished".

From its beginning the Santa Sabina studium played the special role of frequently providing papal theologians from among its members. Since its institution in 1218 the office of Master of the Sacred Palace has always been entrusted to a Friar of the Order of Preachers. In 1218 Saint Dominic was appointed as the first Master of the Sacred Palace by Pope Honorius III. In 1246 Pope Innocent IV appointed Annibaldo degli Annibaldi (c. 1220 – 1272) third Master of the Sacred Palace after Saint Dominic and Bartolomeo di Breganze. Annibaldi had completed his initial studies at the Santa Sabina studium conventuale and was later sent to the studium generale at Paris. Aquinas dedicated to Annibaldi the Catena aurea, which he wrote during his regency at the Santa Sabina studium beginning in 1265.

At the general chapter of Valenciennes in 1259 Thomas Aquinas together with masters Bonushomo Britto, Florentius, Albert, and Peter took part in establishing a program of studies for novices and lectors including two years of philosophy, two years of fundamental theology, church history and canon law, and four years of theology. Those who showed capacity were sent on to a studium generale to complete this course becoming lector, magister studentium, baccalaureus, and magister theologiae.

The new formation program outlined at Valenciennes featured the study of philosophy as an innovation. "In the early days there was no need to study philosophy or the arts in the Order; young men entered already trained in the humanities at the university. St. Albert received his arts training at Padua, St. Thomas at Naples; they were prepared to study theology. By 1259, however, it became evident that youths entering the Order were not sufficiently trained; the new ratio studiorum of 1259 established studia philosophiae in certain provinces corresponding to the university faculty of arts."

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