Thomas of Cantimpré

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Thomas of Cantimpré was a Roman Catholic Medieval writer, preacher, and theologian

[edit] Biography

Thomas was born of noble parentage at Sint-Pieters Leeuw near Brussels, in the Duchy of Brabant, 1201; died 15 May, 1272. At the age of five his education began at Liège, where he spent eleven years mastering the difficulties of the trivium and quadrivium.

At the age of sixteen he received the habit of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Abbey of Cantimpré, where he was eventually elevated to the priesthood. In 1232 after fifteen years at Cantimpré, during which he was a constant source of edification to his religious brethren, he entered the Order of St. Dominic at Louvain, also in Brabant. Immediately after his profession in the following year, he was sent to Cologne to pursue the higher theological studies of the order, under the tutelage of the illustrious Albert the Great. From Cologne, where he spent four years, he went to Paris, to the Dominican studium of St. James, to perfect himself in the sciences and to prepare for the apostolate of preaching.

Returning to Louvain in 1240, he was made professor of philosophy and theology--an office he filled with rare distinction. He achieved equal success in the apostolate of preaching, in recognition of which the title of "Preacher General" was conferred upon him. His missionary activities extended throughout Brabant and into Germany, Belgium and France.

[edit] Writings

To his reputation for missionary zeal and eloquence he added the fame of authorship. In all seven works, treating of philosophy, theology and hagiology, are attributed to his pen.

His first and most important work is entitled "Opus de natura rerum". In the composition of this great work, which contains twenty books, he spent fifteen years. "Bonum universale de apibus" is an allegory in which, employing the figure of bees, he treats of precepts concerning conduct and of the duties of superiors and subjects. This work, which had a wide vogue among spiritual writers for many centuries, was printed at Deventer (before 1478), at Paris, and three times at Douai (1597, 1605, 1627).

His other works treat of hagiology and are as follows: "Vita Christinae virginis mirabilis dictae", "Vita B. Margaritae Iprensis", "Vita Piae Lutgardiâ", "Vita Joannis abbatis primi monasterii Cantimpratensis et ejus Ecclesiae undatoris", "Supplementun ad vitam B. Mariae d'Oignies a B.M. Jacobo de Vitriaco".

Jacob van Maerlant's Van der Naturen Bloeme is a free translation of De natura rerum, the natural history in twenty books by Thomas of Cantimpré.