As the days passed, St. Thomas, bedridden, became worse and worse. Some monks, seeing that his time was approaching, asked him to give them a token of his great learning. Despite his condition, Aquinas did not stop being a great educator and gave them a brief reflection on the Song of Songs, a book from the Old Testament with songs and poems about love.
Later, St. Thomas asked to be given holy Communion. When he saw the Blessed Sacrament arrive, he didn’t care about his condition and prostrated himself on the floor with tears in his eyes to receive his Lord.
After receiving Communion, he was asked if he believed in the Eucharistic Jesus. In the midst of tears, he answered with a profound profession of faith.
“If in this life there can be a knowledge of this sacrament greater than that of the faith, in that faith I respond that I firmly believe and without any doubt that he is true God and true man, Son of God the Father and the Virgin Mother. And so I believe with all my heart and confess with my mouth everything that the priest (who asked him) has affirmed about this Most Holy Sacrament,” St. Thomas replied.
Friar Tocco recounted that the saint “uttered other words full of devotion, which those present could not remember but which are believed to have been these: ‘Adoro te devote,’” the opening line of the beautiful hymn “Adoro Te Devote” written by St. Thomas that is usually sung during Eucharistic adoration.
The prayer of Aquinas before he died
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