During the short space of a year and a half S. Thomas composed the 549 articles, which are all that we have of the last part of his Summa. Some commentaries on divers passages of Holy Writ came from his pen at the same time. The fleeting elements of this world faded gradually from his thoughts; his eye was fixed on other horizons.
The transports which he had always experienced in prayer, became daily more frequent.
Yielding to the entreaties of his friends, to the vow of obedience which he had taken, contrary to the inclination to which his natural humility led him, he revealed some of the supernatural favours which Heaven had vouchsafed to him.
Whilst praying in the church at Naples one day, we are told that Romanus, whom he had left in Paris as master of theology, stood before him. S. Thomas approached his friend and said, "Welcome here, when didst thou come?" "I have passed from this life," replied the figure, "and am permitted to appear on thine account." The Angelical exclaimed, "I adjure thee then to answer me these questions. How do I stand? Are my works pleasing to God?" "Thou art in a good state, and thy works do please God," was the reply. "Then what about thyself?" enquired the Angelical. "I am now in Eternal Bliss, but I have been in Purgatory." "Tell me," continued Thomas, "whether the habits which are acquired in this life remain to us in heaven?" "Brother Thomas," was the reply, "I see God, and do not ask for more." "How dost thou see God," rejoined the saint, "dost thou see Him immediately, or by means of some similitude?" The other answered, "Like as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts," Ps. xlvii. 9, (xlviii. 8,) and then instantly vanished.
While Thomas was writing his articles on the fourth Sacrament, he was praying one day in a chapel dedicated to S. Nicolas, when, as the story goes, the figure on the crucifix turned towards him and said, "Thomas, Thou hast written well of Me; what reward desirest thou?" "Nought, save Thyself, Lord," was the saint's spontaneous reply.
At length he became so absorbed in Divine things, that even the "Summa" itself failed to interest him. He ceased to write, after a marvellous rapture which seized him whilst celebrating mass in the chapel of S. Nicolas. After this mass, he did not sit down to his desk, nor would he consent to dictate anything. When Rainald urged him to finish the "Summa," he replied, "I cannot, for everything that I have written appears to me worthless compared with what I have seen, and what has been revealed to me."
Gregory X. wishing to carry out the union of the Greek and Latin churches, summoned S. Thomas, by special bull, to the Second Council of Lyons, and requested him to bring his famous treatise with him.
Our saint set out with Rainald for Lyons, towards the end of January, 1274. His health was feeble, and his mind was still fixed on the visions of another world. They travelled by way of the Campagna, and called at the castle of Maienza, in the diocese of Terracina, where Frances, wife of Hannibal Ceccano, niece of the Angelic Doctor, resided. Here the saint became much weaker, and did not rally. He wholly lost his appetite. After a while he felt himself a little stronger. The rumour of his proximity reached the Benedictine Abbey of Fossa Nuova, six miles from the castle. The monks came to invite him thither, and he gladly accepted the invitation, saying, "If the Lord means to take me away, it were better that I should die in a religious house, than in the midst of seculars."
He rode in their midst to the abbey; the monks helped him to dismount, and sustained him to the Church, where he knelt in silent adoration. Then rising, the abbot conducted him through the church into the cloister. Then the whole past seemed to break in upon him like a burst of overpowering sunlight; the calm abbey, the meditative corridor, the gentle Benedictine monks, recalled to him Monte Cassino, as in his boyish days. Completely overcome by the memories of the past, he turned to the monks accompanying him, and exclaimed, "This is the place where I shall find repose;" and to Rainald he said, "This shall be my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein." (Ps. cxxxi. 14, A.V., cxxxii. 15.)
His fever increasing, he was conducted to the abbot's cell, which out of respect had been prepared for him. Here, during the whole of his illness, which lasted about a month, the community watched over him with the tenderness and reverence of sons towards a father. They excluded all servants from waiting on him; even the wood to make his fire was cut down in the forest by the hands of the brethren, and borne on their willing shoulders to his hearth. They were overjoyed to receive him into their home, and to minister to him of their choicest and best. He, patient as a child, knew that he was amongst his own, and yearned continually for his release, repeating continually the words of S. Augustine: "So long as in me there is ought which is not wholly Thine, O God, suffering and sorrow will be my lot. But when I shall be Thine alone, then shall I be filled with Thee, and wholly set at liberty."