The Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas (PAST) was established, shortly after the publication of the encyclical Aeterni Patris, on 15 October 1879 by Leo XIII, who approved its statutes with his ‘Breve’ of 9 May 1895. The Academy was then confirmed by St. Pius X with his apostolic letter of 23 January 1904 and enlarged by Benedict XV on 31 December 1914. St. John Paul II then reformed the Academy on 28 January 1999 by his apostolic letter Inter Munera Academiarum, issued shortly after the encyclical Fides et Ratio which underlined “the enduring originality of the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas” (n. 43-44) and proposed him “as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology.
