Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comments from the project's research team. 

On the heels of the skull of St. Thomas Aquinas touring the nation, a new study released this week gives Catholics a glimpse at what the “Angelic Doctor” may have looked like. 

The image of the doctor of the Church who contributed a wealth of wisdom in the areas of theology and philosophy was reconstructed using the saint’s skull. 

The lead author of the new study, Brazilian 3D designer Cicero Moraes, who has reconstructed the faces of other saints, told the Daily Mail, “We initially reconstructed the skull from photographic and structural data.”

“In the end, we combined all this data to create the basic bust and also generate a colored version, based on the iconography of the saint,” explained Moraes.

Speaking to the Register about the entire process, Moraes said: 

"The most challenging part was projecting the missing regions of the skull. Fortunately, we have tools for this, based on measurements taken from CT scans of living people. Thanks to this, it was possible to reconstruct the entire volume of the skull."

The face of the doctor of the Church is a “humble” one.

The Register was also able to speak to the hagiologist, Dr. José Luis Lira, who participated in the project about what the image meant to him:

"We are happy for the countless people who admire the saint or his writings who now receive his image from this branch of science. In short, I am filled with intense happiness at being able to have his image alongside his books, his writings, in our libraries and in our oratories and churches."

The picture of the saint has garnered tremendous reaction on social media as well as from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, where the skull relic visited last November. 

Dominican Father Dominic Legge, director of the Thomistic Institute, reacted to the news of the facial reconstruction, telling the news it actually touched him deeply to see the image of this beloved saint. 

He recounted that he reacted with “gratitude and emotion because Aquinas is someone that I’ve not only studied for a long time and taken as a teacher, but also someone I’ve grown to know and love as a saint — and as a spiritual master.”

“When I saw the reconstruction of his face, it was easier for me to imagine him as a real person who I can have a living relationship with; as a patron saint and as a guide,” he added.

“Aquinas is a figure who has had such an amazing impact on the history of Western civilization,” Father Legge continued, “and whose ideas remain very important for contemporary culture — not to mention contemporary philosophy and theology.”

 

‘Such a Brilliant Mind’

Dominican Father Aquinas Guilbeau, prior of the rectory and also university chaplain at The Catholic University of America, told the Register, “When people venerate the skull of St. Thomas, they often comment on how little it is. I had the same reaction to the skull when it came to the Dominican House of Studies in November. It seemed too small for someone regularly described as large.” 

“Now, it could be that on the whole we’re a lot larger now than even overweight medievals were, or that St. Thomas was never the portly friar described by his legend,” Father Aquinas quipped, adding, “Regardless, the stories of St. Thomas’ size are probably exaggerated.”

“I’m happy to see that these computer re-creations of St. Thomas show him to have been a handsome, noble-looking chap. And wouldn’t that have been fitting? St. Thomas himself would have been the first to appreciate the fittingness of a handsome head containing such a brilliant mind.”

Dominican Father Thomas Petri was a bit more skeptical than his confreres. 

"I am, of course, happy whenever the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, receives attention from the secular press and those who are not Catholic or as devoted to him as I am," the president of the Dominican House of Studies told the Register. 

"I’ve always been somewhat suspicious of facial reconstructions based on skulls. It seems there would need to be a lot of assumptions at play. The scientists said as much, and said they also depended on iconic images of Aquinas. The representation they reproduced looks very similar to Carlo Crivelli’s 15th century painting of him. Still, having another image of Aquinas that accords with our collective imagination of him is not a bad thing."

 

Holy Philosopher’s Death 

Scientists also took part in another study, peering into how Aquinas died, revealing that a “traumatic brain injury” may be to blame for the philosopher’s death. 

In the year 1274, Aquinas set off in good health to attend the Second Council of Lyon, having been invited by Pope Gregory X. 

The Dominican priest never arrived, and historical accounts have pointed to either an illness or something more sinister, even assassination. 

However, in studying the skull, the cause of death can now be attributed to a specific type of hematoma, when blood collects between the brain and skull, the report found. 

“The authors postulate,” the study states, “that Aquinas may have suffered a traumatic brain injury and that his death at age 48 was occasioned by a chronic subdural hematoma.”

Three doctors, Gabriel LeBeau, Abdul-Rahman Alkiswani and Paul Camarata, and theologian Daniel Mauro published these findings in the journal World Neurology. 

Witness accounts noted in the study claim the saint had struck his head when a tree had fallen on his way to Naples, Italy. Aquinas stopped to rest after the accident, first in Maenza and also at the Abbey of Fossanova. However, his situation did not improve, and he died a few weeks later. 

“Most chronic subdural hematomas (cSDH) are preceded by some form of minor to moderate head injury,” the researchers stipulate. 

“A critical reading of the accounts of the last weeks of his life makes a strong case for cSDH: with the classic clinical history of a relatively minor head trauma, a period of lucidity, and then a gradual decline as the hematoma expands over several weeks. Aquinas was not ill prior to the head injury, and the violent collision with the tree on the Via Latina marked the beginning of his demise.”

Powerhouse of Catholic Thought

Although two skulls have been attributed to the philosopher, one that resides in Toulouse, France, and the other in Priverno, Italy, the one in France was found to be most conclusive and was used for the study. 

“We chose to approximate the face of the one in France, because we found more historical and structural data about it than the one in Italy,” Moraes explained. 

Father Legge, who has celebrated Mass in Toulouse in the presence of the skull, hopes the new studies will lead more people to learn about this great powerhouse of Catholic thought. 

“As the director of the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies, it’s my personal mission to bring more people to St. Thomas and the deep Christian wisdom found in his writings. If studying his bodily remains can help people encounter the beautiful life that he lived, and the beautiful ideas he has to teach us, it is a great treasure, indeed.”

Although Father Dominic, as his chosen name suggests, was led to his current vocation through St. Dominic, learning about the Angelic Doctor has had a profound impact on his life, too. 

“I didn’t become a Dominican because of St. Thomas Aquinas, but because of St. Dominic, who had a vocation to preach the Gospel to the whole world. But as I began to study Aquinas, I discovered a profound Christian wisdom that helped me make sense of the world in a new way and understand how the Gospel can be proclaimed in a secular world — and especially how to answer the questions of secular students much more effectively and powerfully than any other thinker or ideology on offer in the contemporary university.”

“The Thomistic Institute,” Father Legge continued, “which takes its inspiration from St. Thomas and has his thought as a touchstone, has discovered that there is a deep hunger to find answers to the most important questions that human beings can ask: ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ ‘What is the meaning of the world around us?’ ‘Does God exist? And can I know him?’ ‘How should I live in order to be happy?’”

The priest has seen firsthand the impact Aquinas’ thought has had on young minds.

“Our mission, inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas, is to bring the best Catholic scholars to secular university campuses, to speak to students with questions like those. And we’ve been amazed and edified to see how much it has grown and how much it has changed the lives of many thousands of students who are seeking the truth.”