Our Studium

What is a studium?

You may often hear Dominican friars say "studium" or "studentate." It is a name commonly used among Dominicans for what today is called a "center of institutional studies." In such a center of institutional studies, Dominican professors and Dominican student brothers form an academic community in which lay men and women may also participate, where all students acquire the theological and ministerial competence for a successful life of preaching, teaching, and service to the Church.  A center of studies in the Dominican order strives always to attain that goal that has been ours since the beginning: to preach in word and deed all that will be useful for the salvation of ourselves and our neighbor.

Why Aquinas Institute of Theology?

At the heart of all our programs is the unique Dominican approach to education that holds as its primary purpose a search for Veritas, the One who is Truth himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we seek to encounter in all of our programs, coursework and campus life, and whom we seek to share through our mission of evangelization, namely to be useful by preaching and teaching for the salvation of every person.

Aquinas Institute of Theology provides students with a close-knit community and engagement with our 800-year-old Dominican heritage. Situated adjacent to the large and beautiful campus of Saint Louis University, students also have access to resources of a large Jesuit research university. 

Why study theology with Dominican friars?

The students of Aquinas Institute are provided a unique opportunity to participate in a rich and vital 800-year old intellectual tradition that formed such luminaries as St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena, all of whom are doctors of the Church. They learn how St. Thomas and other great Dominican theologians  have contributed to the Church's intellectual tradition, and how they continue to assist the Church in its ongoing conversation with culture, science and contemporary religious thought. in this setting, our Dominican student brothers form a dynamic community with lay men and women; religious sisters and brothers; and priests and other ministers.  With their professors they listen, teach and learn from one another how the Word of God can be proclaimed and heard by the men and women of our time.