St. Thomas Aquinas

A son of the noble Aquino family in southern Italy, Thomas defied his parents to join the new Dominican order — they kidnapped him and held him for a year, but his resolve was unshaken. He studied under Albert the Great in Paris and Cologne, where his fellow students nicknamed him "the dumb ox" for his silence and bulk. Albert replied: "We call him the dumb ox, but the bellowing of this ox will resound throughout the world."

He spent his life teaching and writing — his Summa Theologiae alone runs to millions of words. He sought to bring Aristotle’s philosophy into Christian thought without dissolving either, and the synthesis he forged remains the backbone of Catholic theology.

Toward the end of his life, after an experience of God in prayer, he set down his pen and never wrote again. "All that I have written," he said, "seems like straw to me, compared to what has been revealed." He died on the road to the Council of Lyon at forty-nine.