Beatitude is another term for happiness. This is a state of a person living a good life with gratification and a peace of mind. Christian thinkers believe that happiness can only be achieved by having unity with God. Saint Thomas Aquinas was the author of the Shorter Summa and argued that happiness can only be achieved by having unity with God. He thought that the only way to be happy was by knowing God, by the beatific vision. Catherine of Siena thought that the only happiness was in union with God, but she stressed the idea of the unity of love. Both Aquinas and Catherine dedicated their lives to the Dominican order, which was founded by St. Dominic of Guzman and emphasizes preaching and teaching. Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena dive into the meaning of the relationship of how happiness is connected to God.
St. Thomas Aquinas lived from 1225 to 1274. He was born in Roccasecca, Italy. Aquinas was part of a wealthy family living in a castle. He had eight brothers and sisters, and his parents destined him for a religious vocation. Aquinas began studying Theology at the University of Naples in 1239. Thomas valued Aristotle’s writings and spent a lot of time studying his teachings. During his studies at the University of Naples, Aquinas joined the Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers. Aquinas’s parents did not agree with this decision and put him under house arrest. Eventually his parents allowed him to return to the Dominicans a couple months later. The Dominicans recognized Aquinas as being influential early on and sent him to study at the University of Paris with St. Albert the Great. Aquinas became a teacher at the University of Paris in 1252 teaching as a Bachelor of the Sentences. After teaching this for four years, Thomas became a teacher as a Master of Theology in 1256. Aquinas taught in Paris for three more years and then taught in Naples, Orvietto, and Rome until 1268. During this time, Aquinas began to write his Summa Theologiae. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274 as he was on his way to a council. Aquinas was canonized in 1567 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1567 by Pope St. Pius V. Aquinas is the supreme exemplary of the Christian practice.
St. Catherine of Siena lived over six hundred years ago from 1347 to 1380. The fourteenth century was the beginning of the Renaissance which included wars, sicknesses, corruption, and problems within the Church. Catherine was born in Siena, Italy during the plague. She was the twenty-third child born in her family and was said to have been a warm, affectionate person. She spent a lot of time fasting, giving things away to the poor, and visiting people who were sick. Catherine viewed her mother as Our Lady, her dad as an inclination of Jesus Christ, and her brothers as apostles. Catherine decided that she didn’t want to marry and dedicated her life to God as a Dominican “Manteletta”. This is a group of Dominican laywomen that wear a white tunic and black mantle. Raymond of Capua became her confessor and spiritual leader throughout her life. Catherine called for reform of the Church and for people to confess their love for God. Many people credit St. Catherine as being a key figure in starting the crusade to the Holy Land. Catherine loved politics and worked to have city states remain loyal to the pope, while also was a key part in refurbishing the Papacy to Rome. In 1377, she instituted a monastery for women and began writing her dialogue. St. Catherine finished her dialogue one year later and composed over 400 letters. She became very sick in 1380 due to fasting. Pius II declared her a saint in 1461 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Paul VI. Catherine of Siena is recognized as one of the most prominent saints in the church.
Thomas Aquinas believed in the beatific vision which said that in order to be happy, you have to know God. Confirmation in good in the beatific vision “enables us to understand that the soul which sees God – and the same is true of any other spiritual creature – has its will firmly fixed in Him, so that it can never turn to what is opposed to Him” (Shorter Summa, 186-187). This beatific vision measures that if you enjoy the vision of God’s essence, you cannot turn your will from him, but rather desire all things in subordination to him. This will allow you to create a deeper love for him by attending mass, following his practices, and seeing God in all things. The end of man is known as beatitude. Aquinas writes that “For a man’s happiness or beatitude consists in the vision whereby he sees God in His essence” (119). Man is far down from God in his perfection of happiness that has this beatitude by his nature. It is said that a man attains happiness by becoming admitted “to a share in the divine light” (119). This beatific vision leads to unity with God.
A good life includes a fulfillment of happiness. Aquinas writes that, “God is goodness itself, which is the cause of love. So God’s goodness must be loved by all who apprehend it” (186). Thus, if you see God and have a vision of him, you will achieve happiness in the vision of God. This vision “entails immutability in the intellect and will for us humans” (168). The end goal of human life is for everyone to accomplish happiness. Thomas says that people disagree about what living a happy life entails. Some people think that a happy life involves wealth and pleasures, while others think of happiness as a life full of righteous activity. Thomas spent a lot of his life reading Aristotle and agreed with the fact that human happiness is imperfect. They both agree with the fact that the fulfillment of happiness includes looking at your soul and noticing if it is valuing virtue, while also making God the most important. Aquinas writes that “Man’s consummation consists in the attainment of his last end, which is perfect beatitude or happiness” (168). In order to discover the nature of human happiness, we have to ask ourselves if we are truly happy. Achieving human happiness and going to heaven is the ultimate goal because this would lead to a union between you and God and completing the beatific vision. Human happiness comes from virtuous moral deeds, rather than good actions. However, “the nature of perfect happiness would be contradicted if man, after achieving it, could turn to what is opposed to it” (187). Why would you turn from happiness once you get it? This is because when one achieves happiness, they can turn to wealth and pleasures that will hurt their soul. People that experience happiness are realistically good people that have good morals.
Catherine of Siena stresses the unity of love when discussing the union with God from happiness. Catherine had a good relationship with Jesus as they spoke to each other often about making the world a better place through love. When Catherine of Siena wrote her letters, she wrote them to specific people. Scholars have about 400 of her letters. She wrote her letters to family members, friends, public figures, and to many other important figures in her life. Catherine puts a sort of personal touch on each letter and portrays a sense of unity. She delights in the problems and stories of each person that she meets and talks to. The letters display a sense sympathy to the person and make them feel better about themselves. She encourages the person in each letter to accept God, and promises that it will lead to happiness. She begins each letter with the word “dear” or “dearest” to show that she is there for the person. For example, in Bear All Your Troubles Patiently, she begins the letter by “Dearest brother in Christ Jesus” (Catherine of Siena, 23). It is evident through her letters that Catherine believes in three types of love: God, neighbor, and the Church.
There are many places in her letters where she brings up the idea of how happiness is in union with God through the unity of love. In most of her letters, Catherine concludes the message with “Remain in the holy, gentle love of God. Gentle Jesus, Jesus love.” This is assertive of her theory involving the unity of love with God to have happiness. In Love Others Tenderly, Catherine tells a Dominican laywoman that “every virtue receives life from love, and love is gained in love, that is, by raising the eye of our intellect to consider how much we are loved by God” (29). Catherine emphasizes the idea that God loves everyone that he created and this is how we achieve happiness. Catherine talks about how obedience and showing love to others helps you live a better life. In There Is a Time to Be Together and a Time to Be Separate, Catherine says to Rocca di Tentennano,
“Obedience and love enable you to overcome every suffering and darkness. Obedience takes away the thing that causes us pain, namely, our own perverse will (which is denied and removed in true holy obedience), and darkness is scattered and dissolved by the power of love and unity, for God is true charity and highest eternal light. Those who have this true light as their guide cannot lose their way” (Catherine of Siena, 31).
Catherine wants them to lose the wills that they practice, and to gain this light to develop a stronger love with God. Catherine also talks about how to act like a person who has happiness in their life. In Behave Like a Person in Love, Catherine wants to see us burning and consumed in the Lord’s blazing love and says, “those who are burning and consumed in this love are not centered on themselves, and that’s the way I want you to be” (33). This quote emphasizes the point to be caring for others in the world. Love isn’t supposed to be only contained for yourself, it is meant to be broadcasted and shared. Catherine touched every person she wrote letters to through her divine passion for people to create everlasting happiness.
The similarity between Catherine of Siena and Thomas Aquinas is that you can only achieve happiness by creating a unity with God. The beginnings of blessedness are found in God, and we can’t be happy unless we believe in him. People that bear happiness live a good life full of gratification and love. Catherine of Siena and Thomas Aquinas were loving Dominicans that touched the lives of many during their time on earth through their teachings and writings.