Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, of the Order of Preachers. Piercing a hole straight through the somber, penitential season of Lent, the feast of the Angel of the Schools is I Class, so the festive office is prayed according to the rubrics. A commemoration of is made at 1st Vespers and at Lauds. All is given in the Proper of the Saints.
In the monastery of Fossa Nuova, near Terracina, St. Thomas Aquinas of the Order of Preachers, confessor and Doctor of the Church. He was most illustrious for nobility of birth, holiness of life, and knowledge of theology. He preserved until death the grace of virginity. On account of the extraordinary superiority of his learning, he rightly earned the title of "Angelic Doctor." His writings, remarkable for the solidity of doctrine and approved by our Lord Himself, marvelously illuminate as dazzling lights the Catholic Church and every school of the orthodox world. Leo XIII declared him to be the celestial patron of all Catholic schools.
The Dominican Office for this feast contains spiritually rich proper antiphons and hymns. Some of my favorites include the super psalm antiphon at 1st Vespers:
The Blessed Thomas, Doctor of the Church, light of the world, glory of Italy, virgin shining with the bloom of chastity, rejoices in a twofold crown of glory.