Saint Thomas of Villanova

Saint Thomas of Villanova was a Spanish Augustinian, a preacher, and archbishop of Valencia. He gave everything he had to people in need, and so he was called the father of the poor. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on September 8, the day of his death.

He was born in Fuenllana in Castile. The year of his birth is uncertain: 1486 is given most often, sometimes 1488. He grew up in Villanueva de los Infantes, from which he took his name. His father was a miller, and his parents were known for their generosity to the poor. He studied at the University of Alcalá, where he later taught logic and philosophy himself. After his father’s death he gave his entire inheritance to a house for poor girls in Villanueva.

In 1516 he entered the Augustinians in Salamanca, and in 1518 he was ordained a priest. In the friary he taught theology and preached. The order entrusted him with one office after another: he was prior in Salamanca, Burgos, and Valladolid and provincial of Andalusia and of Castile. As provincial he sent the first Augustinians to the missions in Mexico. Emperor Charles V made him his preacher and counselor.

Thomas refused the archbishopric of Granada. When the emperor nominated him archbishop of Valencia in 1544, he accepted only at the command of his religious superior. He avoided a solemn entry: he came to the cathedral on foot, in a plain habit. The diocese had been without a resident bishop for more than a hundred years. The new archbishop visited every parish, convened a synod, and worked to renew the clergy, and in 1550 he founded the College of the Presentation to train future priests. He also worked to evangelize the Moriscos, that is, Muslims who had received baptism, and their descendants.

He became best known for his mercy. He kept a list of the poor so as to help each one according to need, gave dowries to poor girls, cared for abandoned children, and ransomed from captivity the people of Cullera who had been carried off in a Moorish raid. He himself wore a patched habit, which he mended with his own hands. During his lifetime he would not allow his sermons to be printed; they appeared only after his death.

When he fell gravely ill, he had all his remaining money given to the poor. He gave his bed to a poor prison jailer, asking only that he might lie on it until he died. He died on September 8, 1555, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, during a Mass celebrated in his room, with the words: “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” His relics rest today in the cathedral of Valencia.

Pope Paul V beatified him in 1618, and Alexander VII canonized him on November 1, 1658, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The parish church of Castel Gandolfo, designed by Bernini at the commission of Alexander VII, bears his name. Pope Leo XIV, himself an Augustinian, recalled in 2025 that Thomas devoted his life to serving the poor.