Is Aquinas’s Masterwork Infallible?

St. Thomas Aquinas, the author of the Summa Theologica, is arguably the greatest theologian in Church history. That is why he’s known as “the Angelic Doctor.”

And yet St. Thomas would be the first to assert that neither he nor any of his works, including the Summa Theologica, is infallible, even though the Summa remains a great standard in helping teach the Catholic Faith, especially at the collegiate and seminarian level. Infallibility is a God-given charism whereby the Holy Spirit protects the Church’s magisterium from teaching error on matters of faith and morals, and even then this charism is exercised only in certain circumstances (see the Catechism 890-92, 2035). St. Thomas explained the Church teaching like few others, but he didn’t have the charism of infallibility in general, nor does the Summa Theologica in particular.