June 15, 2025 - "Thomas of Villanova"

He received an excellent education at the University of Alcaláz de Hernanes and, in time, he became a popular professor there despite being absent minded and having a poor memory.  Along the way he encountered the Augustinians and was attracted to them because of their friendship and deep sense of community. He entered the order in 1516 in Salamanca and was ordained a priest two years later.  After having entered the Order and being ordained a priest, Thomas taught theology at Salamanca and was quickly identified for leadership in the Augustinian community there becoming the prior of his local monastery, Visitor General, and Prior Provincial for Andalusia and Castile.  In 1533, Thomas sent out the first Augustinian friars to serve as missionaries in Mexico. He turned down the offer of Charles V to be the Archbishop of Granada. In 1544 he was nominated as Archbishop of Valencia. He continued to refuse this position until ordered to accept it by the Prior General of the Augustinians.

 

Thomas became renowned for his eloquent and effective preaching in the churches of Salamanca.  His Sermon on the Love of God is considered one of the great examples of sacred oratory of the sixteenth century. On one occasion when Emperor Charles V heard Thomas of Villanova preach, Charles V exclaimed, “This monsignor can move even the stones!” Chales named Thomas one of his counselors of state and court preacher in Valladolid, the residence of the emperor on his visits to the Low Countries (a region in Western Europe today consisting of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands [collectively known as the Benelux countries]).

 

Thomas continued to wear the same habit he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself.  The canons of the cathedral and his domestic staff tried unsuccessfully to get him to change his ways. His charitable efforts were untiring, especially toward orphans, poor women without a dowry, and the sick.  Several hundred poor people would come to his door each morning and would receive a meal, some wine, and some money.  When people would tell him he was overly generous and being taken advantage of, he replied, “If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the governor and the police to deal with. My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door.” At the same time while he was very charitable, he sought to obtain definitive and structural solutions to the problem of poverty; for example, giving work to the poor, thereby making his charity bear fruit.   “Charity is not just giving, rather removing the need of those who receive charity and liberating them from it whenever possible.” When Thomas was criticized because he refused to be harsh or swift in condemning sinners, he replied, “Let him (the complainer) inquire whether Saint Augustine or Saint John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care.”

 

In his lifetime Thomas of Villanova was already called, “the almsgiver” and “the father of the poor.” He died in Valencia on September 8, 1555, of angina at the age of 67. He was beatified on October 7, 1618, by Pope Paul V and canonized on November 1, 1658, by Pope Alexander VII.

 

Let me finish this column, let me quote this prayer from one of his sermons:

 

“I will love you, Lord, in every way and without setting limits to my love.  You set no limits to what you have done for me.  You have not measured out your gifts.  I will not measure out my love.  I will love you, Lord, with all my strength, with all my powers, as much as I am able.”

 

Until next week,