8 The Cult of Thomas Aquinas’s Relics at the Dawn of the Dominican Reform and the Great Western Schism

Abstract

This chapter reconstructs the cultural and theological politics of the celebrations of Thomas Aquinas’s translatio, looking closely at the liturgy used to commemorate the day. It argues that the veneration of Aquinas’s relics, as well as the masses said in his honor, enabled him to figure as a healer and an agent of reform. Aquinas comes to be projected as an Avignon saint, in a cult promulgated by Elias Raymundus of Toulouse. This chapter shows how commemorative practices interwove to produce this reforming Avignon saint, particularly looking at hagiography, ritual, and, the display of relics.