As we mark the 800th birthday of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2025, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the many depictions of our university’s namesake that that adorn the St. Thomas campus.
Perhaps the most familiar image of St. Thomas is the statue embedded in the university’s campus landmark, the Arches. Installed during the final stages of construction on Albertus Magnus Hall (now the John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts) in 1947, the statue has become an iconic symbol of St. Thomas.
Yet not far away, another significant statue of Aquinas often escapes notice. Above the south entrance to Aquinas Hall stands a figure of the saint sculpted by noted local religious artist Joseph Capecchi of the Saint Paul Statuary Company. Installed in 1932 during the construction of what was originally called the Liberal Arts Building, this piece is the earliest tribute to the school’s namesake to be seen on campus.
On the opposite end of campus, students regularly pass two more modern representations of Aquinas: the Timothy Schmalz sculpture outside of the Chapel of St. Thomas and Nicholas Markell’s icon of the saint in the Iversen Center for Faith. But within the chapel itself, there are other significant representations.
In the east transept of the chapel, the rose window honors St. Thomas Aquinas and his writings. At its center, the saint appears flanked by angels and encircled by panels illustrating themes drawn from his theological works. At his feet, a priest and a student are shown studying his most influential text, the Summa Theologica. Below are two vertical stained-glass windows that depict scenes from Aquinas’ early life as a student. Minneapolis-based stained glass artist Chester Weston designed and crafted these windows in the early 1940s, following a decorative plan for the chapel developed by Father Walter LeBeau.
Also located on the east side of the chapel, a shrine to St. Thomas stands as another tribute to the school’s namesake. Commissioned in 1942 by benefactor I.A. O’Shaughnessy, the shrine features another sculptural work executed by Joseph Capecchi.
The O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library also includes notable tributes to St. Thomas Aquinas. In the second-floor Great Room, a stained-glass window designed by the Conrad Pickel Studio in 1959 honors Aquinas as one of the Doctors of the Church. The window’s theme, “the sun which dispels the darkness,” evokes the illuminating power of Aquinas’ theological insight.
The 1990 addition to the library features the striking 120-square-foot stained-glass window of Aquinas by artist Dieterich Spahn. Set in the Rocca-Rutman Tower, the window can be admired from the lower quad or viewed up close from the library’s main stairwell. As St. Thomas President Monsignor Terrence Murphy once observed, the artwork makes it “clearly evident that St. Thomas is our patron saint and this is his university.”
These and other artworks on campus representing the university’s namesake are more than decorative. They reflect the intellectual and spiritual legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas and remind us daily of the values at the heart of our community.
For more information on the legacy and significance of St. Thomas Aquinas for the university, see this YouTube video.
