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All Italy Naples The Arm of St. Thomas Aquinas
AO Edited

The Arm of St. Thomas Aquinas

The remains of the left arm of the levitating philosopher-saint are kept in a 13th-century Neapolitan basilica.

Naples, Italy

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Joel Cusumano
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The reliquary containing the arm of St. Thomas Aquinas.   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
The royal Aragonese tombs in the room adjacent to the Sacred Relics Room.   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
A preserved heart of unknown provenance placed next to St. Thomas’ relics   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
The façade of San Domenico Maggiore viewed from the Spaccanapoli.   IlSistemone
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About

At the halfway point of the ancient Neapolitan decumanus (east-west corridor) known colloquially as the "Spaccanapoli" sits the imposing fortress-like exterior of the basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. Inside this 13th-century church's Sacred Relics Chamber are what remains of the left arm of city's most prominent philosopher, the priest St. Thomas Aquinas.

In the 1270s, Thomas Aquinas founded a Dominican academy in the monastery attached to San Domenico Maggiore. Extraordinary witness accounts from this time testify that the priest was able to levitate during meditation. In one instance, the sacristan of the basilica witnessed Aquinas levitating while simultaneously speaking to Christ, who complimented the priest's writings.

When Aquinas died due to injuries sustained falling from a donkey, he'd leave behind a highly revered corpus of Christian philosophy and theology, in addition to the aforementioned left arm.

What remains of the arm is a small fragment of bone, viewable through a sliver of glass in a suitably hand-shaped reliquary. Next to the hand is a preserved heart whose owner is unknown. That fact is possibly not as strange as it sounds—the preserved hearts of Charles II of Naples, Alfonso V of Aragon, and Ferdinand II of Naples were once kept in the church, but mysteriously disappeared following the Napoleonic occupation of the city in the 1800s.

Related Tags

Relics Relics And Reliquaries Religion Churches Saints Sacred Spaces
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Added By

Joel Cusumano

Published

May 10, 2018

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Domenico_Maggiore
  • https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_San_Domenico_Maggiore
  • http://www.saintsinrome.com/2013/08/st-thomas-aquinas.html
  • http://www.napoliunplugged.com/st-thomas-aquinas-in-naples.html
The Arm of St. Thomas Aquinas
8a Piazza S. Domenico Maggiore
Naples
Italy
40.8488, 14.254418
Get Directions

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