Convent of the Jacobins and the Tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas

Why pilgrims come

Visit the resting place and legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas

The brick Gothic church of the Jacobins preserves the principal relics of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dominican friar, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. Thomas died at Fossanova in 1274. Nearly a century later, Pope Urban V entrusted his relics to the Dominicans of Toulouse, where they were received in 1369. They now rest beneath the modern altar in the center of the church.

The placement changes how the building is read. The famous palm-tree vault is not only an architectural marvel: its ribs open above a shrine to a thinker whose theology joined disciplined reason to contemplation. Thomas’s intellectual work grew from prayer, preaching, community, and the Eucharist. Pilgrims should resist reducing him to a stack of books—or the church to a photography stop.

The convent is now administered as a civic monument, while the relics remain a Catholic sacred presence. Opening hours, admission, and event closures therefore follow municipal visitor rules. Begin with prayer at the altar, read a short passage from Thomas’s Eucharistic hymns, then walk the cloister and chapter spaces that recall the Order of Preachers. The January 28 feast is the principal annual occasion for devotion; verify any Mass or procession with the local diocese and Dominicans.

Pray beside the Church’s great Dominican theologian, then let the famous palm vault turn intellectual wonder upward.