In Brief:

Named for the rocky birthplace of St. Thomas Aquinas, The Roccasecca Project is a Catholic, independent, non-profit organization consisting of alumni, parents, students and friends of the University of St. Thomas (UST) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mission

Our mission is to directly engage in the life and future of our Alma Mater, UST. We seek to celebrate, foster, and cultivate Catholic identity and culture through prayer and the sacraments, intellectual formation and fraternal gatherings.

  

Vision

We envision a renewed Catholic identity at UST, one that invites all involved to embrace the goodness, truth and beauty of our Catholic faith, as professed by our patron saint, St. Thomas Aquinas. We support students and faculty with a unified voice that expresses Catholic values, and we provide opportunities for students and alumni to enrich their faith and their relationship with Jesus Christ.  

 

Values

Under the special patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas, The Roccasecca Project is guided by a set of virtues embodied by these beloved Saints

  •  Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom ~ humility and grace

  • St. Joseph ~ courage and fidelity

  • St. Mary Magdalene ~ penance and charity

  • St. Thomas Aquinas ~ pursuit of truth, purity, chastity, charity towards opponents

  • St. Catherine of Alexandra ~ prudence, wisdom, willingness to suffer for the truth

  • St. Augustine ~ conversion, dedication, intellect and perseverance

  • St. Albert the Great ~ teacher of St. Thomas, patience, cultivation of the intellect

  • St. Catherine of Siena ~ zeal, directness

  • St. Thomas More ~ courage, steadfastness, and a willingness to risk all for the faith

  • St. John Henry Newman ~ his idea of a university, courage, trust in God

  • Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati ~ patron of students, joy, courage, endurance

  • St. Monica ~ hope, prayers for conversion, perseverance

Name and Namesake

In 1225 Tommaso d’Aquino was born to the Count of Aquino in the town of Roccasecca in the Kingdom of Sicily. Strategic high ground for Roman legions to control the valley below Mount Asprano, the fortified hilltop town grew in importance during the Middle Ages especially due to its close proximity to the great Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino. Today the town of nearly 7500 inhabitants is located in the province of Frosinone in the Lazio Region of central Italy.

Our project draws its inspiration from the earliest stages of St. Thomas Aquinas’ life. From his early education under the care of the Benedictines and subsequent studies at the University of Naples, the mind and heart of young Thomas was being prepared for his mission. Much to the consternation of his family he felt a countercultural draw towards the mendicant life of the upstart Dominicans. After an ‘imprisonment’ of nearly two years in the tower of the family castle of Monte San Giovanni, the twenty-year-old Thomas ventured to the University of Paris where he continued his studies under the tutelage of St. Albert the Great.

The crags and rock faces which rise above the town of Roccasecca as well as the medieval ruins of the castle of the counts of Aquino together evoke the “dry rock” for which the town was named.