On this day- 28 January

The Western Church celebrates the feast of St Thomas Aquinas on this day, even though the anniversary of his death is March 7, because on this day he published his great work, the Summa Theologica. As a young student Thomas was shy and reserved, and his classmates and teachers made fun of him, calling him Dumb Ox. later he would become a Doctor of the Church and greatly influence the shape of theological reflection in the Roman Church.
This image comes from the Demidoff Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli.

On this day in 1547 Henry VIII died and his son, Edward VI, became the first Protestant King of England and Ireland. This image, whose date and painter are unknown, is an allegory of the English Reformation.


Today is also the anniversary of the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. Here are two of his poems in remembrance of his wonderful gifts that he left us all to cherish.

The Everlasting Voices

O sweer everlasting Voices, be still;

Go to the guards of the heavenly fold

And bid them wander obeying your will,

Flame under flame, till Time be no more;

Have you not heard that our hearts are old,

That you call in birds, in wind on the hill,

In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?

O sweet everlasting Voices, be still.

A Man Young And Old: II. Human Dignity

Like the moon her kindness is,

If kindness I may call

What has no comprehension in't,

But is the same for all

As though my sorrow were a scene

Upon a painted wall.

So like a bit of stone I lie

Under a broken tree.

I could recover if I shrieked

My heart's agony

To passing bird, but I am dumb

From human dignity.

Yeats' father was a lawyer turned portrait painter. The portrait below is WB Yeats, by his father, John Yeats: