Poinsot, John

Abstract

John of St. Thomas, O.P. (Poinsot), was a Portuguese Dominican who was one of the most significant Thomists of his order during the seventeenth century. Born in Lisbon in 1589 as John Poinsot, he would take the name “John of St. Thomas” upon his admission to the Order of Preachers in 1610. Before joining the religious life, Poinsot studied arts at the University of Coimbra where Jesuit learning and education were in full force. From Coimbra, Poinsot followed his father, liege to the Archduke Albert of Austria, to Flanders. There Poinsot enrolled in the University of Louvain where he studied theology. John of St. Thomas Aquinas’s life was spent teaching in the various houses of studies that the Dominicans oversaw, but perhaps his most significant appointment was to the University of Alcalá where he held the cátedra de vísperas and then the cátedra de prima. During his time at Alcalá, John of St. Thomas authored the two texts for which he is most famous: the Cursus philosophicus thomisticus and Cursus theologicus. John of St. Thomas was forced to leave his academic life behind when he was chosen to be the confessor of King Philip IV. The Dominican died in his king’s service at Fraga in 1644.