that his life must be
wholly spent with God. This feature of his life is insisted on by his
biographers: "Men ever saw him of joyful mien, gentle and sweet, not
occupying himself with worldly affairs, but ever given to study, to
reading, to writing, and to prayer for the enlightening of the
faithful."[8] Thus we are told that when Brother Reginald, who had been
Blessed Thomas's companion, returned from Fossa Nuova to Naples after
the Master's death to resume the lectures he had been giving there, he
burst into tears as he stood before the Brethren, and said: "Brothers, I
was forbidden by my Master to reveal during his life the marvels I had
seen. One of those marvels was that his knowledge, which so wondrously
surpassed that of other men, was not due to any human skill, but to the
merits of his prayers. For whenever he would study, or dispute, or read,
or write, or dictate, he would first betake himself to prayer in secret,
and there with many tears would implore light wherewith to search
rightly into the secret things of God. And by the merits of such prayer
it came to pass that, whereas previous to his prayer he had been in
doubt about the subject of his study, he always returned from it
illumined. And when any doubtful point occurred to him before he had had
recourse to prayer, he went to pray, and what had previously been
obscure was then Divinely made clear to him."[9]

Truly characteristic of our Saint are those three petitions he was wont
to make: that he might never learn to love things of earth; that he
might never change his state of life; that God would reveal to him the
state of his brother Reginald, who had been put to death, unjustly, as
Thomas thought, by the Emperor Frederic. All three petitions were
granted, two of them, as he himself told Brother Reginald on his
deathbed, by the Blessed Virgin herself. "She appeared to him," says
William of Tocco, "and assured him regarding his life and his knowledge,
promised him, too, that God would grant him whatsoever he should ask
through her intercession, and told him, moreover, that he would never
change his state of life."[10]

The following story is well known, but is too illustrative of the
Saint's character to be omitted: A dispute had arisen in the University
of Paris regarding the Accidents of the Holy Eucharist, and the Doctors
of the University decided to leave the decision with S. Thomas. The
responsibility was great, but the Saint according to his cu