The beginning 121 years ago was meager, the ascension without fanfare. A steady process that preached purpose, culture, and service rooted in the Basilian credo of Teach Me Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge.

Since 1900, St. Thomas has served as a Catholic Basilian beacon with a thriving intellectual and moral tradition that remains the cornerstone of an esteemed academic pursuit and formation. The second oldest continuously operating private high school in Houston (to Incarnate Word Academy) is home to a vibrant array of accomplished scholars, distinguished faculty members, deeply committed professional staff, and unwavering supporters and donors.

Now well into the second century after its genesis, St. Thomas relished its legacy as a premier college preparatory experience with a Mass celebrating the feast of patron St. Thomas Aquinas. The Italian Dominican friar and immensely influential philosopher is respected as the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.

President Fr. James Murphy, CSB served as the celebrant in a socially distanced gathering of the St. Thomas campus community in Granger Stadium on a sun splashed January morning.

A Student’s Prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas:

Come, Holy Spirit, Divine Creator, true source of light and fountain of wisdom! Pour forth your brilliance upon my dense intellect, dissipate the darkness which covers me, that of sin and of ignorance. Grant me a penetrating mind to understand, a retentive memory, method and ease in learning, the lucidity to comprehend, and abundant grace in expressing myself. Guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to successful completion. This I ask through Jesus Christ, true God and true man, living and reigning with You and the Father, forever and ever. Amen.

Friendship Brings Out The Best In Us from St. Thomas Aquinas:

The inner life of another that is known to God alone becomes to a much less degree open to us through friendship. It partially fills the desire of our incomplete, lonely hearts for completeness in another. Friendship brings out the best part in a person through forgetfulness of self.

Prayer Before Study from St. Thomas Aquinas:

Creator of all things,
true Source of light and wisdom,
lofty origin of all being,
graciously let a ray of Your brilliance
penetrate into the darkness of my understanding
and take from me the double darkness
in which I have been born,
an obscurity of both sin and ignorance.
Give me a sharp sense of understanding,
a retentive memory,
and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.
Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning,
direct the progress,
and help in completion;
through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Catholic. Basilian. Teaching Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge since 1900.