How St. Thomas chased away a girl who wanted to seduce him

Spirituality

When St. Thomas Aquinas chose to become a Dominican (c. 1245) he met with “severe opposition from his family… St. Thomas was literally captured by his brothers and imprisoned in the family castle… The most dramatic episode of his imprisonment, came when his brothers sent a temptress to his quarters. As soon as St. Thomas saw that the girl’s intention was to seduce him, he ran to the fireplace, seized a burning stick and, brandishing it, chased her from the room with it. Then he traced a cross on the wall with the charred wood. When he fell asleep soon afterward, he dreamed that two Angels came and girded him about the waist with a cord, saying: ‘On God’s behalf we gird you with the girdle of chastity, a girdle which no attack will ever destroy.’” (33 Doctors of the Church, p. 367)