Our Mission
The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas
The Angelicum’s mission is to form students as virtuous leaders, capable of evangelization and promoting integral human development, illuminated by the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Angelicum offers university education where faith and reason work together. It forms students as virtuous leaders, capable of evangelization and promoting integral human development. Illuminating the present by the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, students, professors, and staff share in Dominican study, prayer, community and preaching.
Our University Motto: Caritas Veritatis – Charity of Truth
From the Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio” Dominicianus Ordo from St. John XXIII, in which he honored with the title of Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, the then International Pontifical Athenaeum Angelicum (March 7, 1963):
“So as to assure an adequate doctrinal formation in universities and religious houses of formation; and in order to fulfill our desire that the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas be deepened as a treasure for the development of the Christian life and his writings be made accessible to all since they continue to be relevant to our times; and since we are convinced that if the study of the doctrines of the Angelic Doctor continue to be advanced they will fulfill the determinations of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council; after carefully examining the matter, motu proprio and by our apostolic authority we decree and promulgate that the International Pontifical Athenaeum Angelicum, legitimately erected and entrusted to the Order of Preachers, now and in posterity be designated as the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.”
Tradition
The Angelicum is a Dominican University, founded by the Order of Friars Preachers, to give expression to the Order’s Gospel charism of preaching and teaching the truth of Jesus Christ to all nations. Like the Angelic Doctor himself, today’s students learn by opening the classic books of revelation, of nature, and of experience, which discloses the inner book of the Church’s living Tradition, a Tradition of God’s Word made flesh and dwelling amongst us.
The Angelicum aims to teach students not only what is truth but how they can go on in discovering truth and in teaching and preaching it.
The Four Pillars for
the Order of Friars Preachers
As a Dominican University, we were founded by the Order of Preachers to give expression to the Order’s gospel charism of preaching and teaching the Truth of Jesus Christ to all nations, focusing on the “Four Pillars” for the Order:
Community
Rooted in the personal and professional relationship between professors and students.
Prayer
Opening our hearts and minds to pursue and receive the Truth that is Jesus Christ through contemplation.
Study
Focused more on the assimilation of wisdom than on the multiplication of knowledge.
Preach
Through the mastering of the charity of truth prepared to teach, to bear witness, and to serve.
The Five Frontiers of Evangelization
The General Chapter of Avila (1986) also defined the Order’s and thus the University’s “Five Frontiers” of evangelization:
1
Humanity and inhumanity, or the challenge of the marginalized.
2
Life and death, or the challenge of justice and peace in the world.
3
Christian experience, or the challenge of the great world religions.
5
The Church, or the challenge of non-Catholic Christians and of the sects.
4
Religious experience, or the challenge of secular ideologies.
Going Forward
The Dominicans who direct the University seek to continue in the same spirit of Truth of St. Dominic and of these Four Priorities and Five Frontiers. Inspired by the great doctor saints of the Order –SS. Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Catherine of Siena – we aim to penetrate the Truth of Jesus Christ and to discover and preach that harmony between faith and reason that our broken world so needs today.