Reginald of Piperno

Reginald of Piperno

Dominican, theologian, companion of St. Thomas Aquinas, b. at Piperno about 1230; d. about 1290. He entered the Dominican Order at Naples. St. Thomas chose him as his socius and confessor at Rome about 1260. From that time Reginald was the constant and intimate companion of the saint, and his testimony is continually cited in the process of Thomas' canonization. To this disciple Thomas dedicated several of his works. In 1272 Reginald was cured of a fever by the prayers of the saint. The same year he began to teach with Thomas at Naples. He attended at the death-bed of the holy doctor, received his general confession, and pronounced the funeral oration (1274). He returned to Naples, and probably succeeded to the chair of his master. Reginald collected all the works of St. Thomas. Four of the "Opuscula" are reports he made of lectures delivered by the Saint, either taken down during the lecture or afterwards written out from memory. These are: "Postilla super Joannem" (corrected by St. Thomas), "Postillae super Epistolas S. Pauli", "Postilla super Tres Nocturnos Psalterii", "Lectura super Primum de Anima". Reginald is also considered by some as the compiler of the Supplement to the Summa Theologica. The funeral discourse published at Bologna in 1529 under the name of Reginald is the work of the Italian humanist Flaminius.

QUÉTIF-ECHARD, Scriptores Ord. Praed. Paris 1721) I, 382; MANDONNET, Des écrits authentiques de S. Thomas D"Aquin (Fribourg, 1910) 37-41, 52-3, 153-4.

J.A. McHUGH