St. Thomas Aquinas On Beauty
St. Thomas wrote something about almost any subject you can name. He spoke of beauty as “id quod visum placet” in Latin, meaning in English “that which being seen, pleases (the observer).” Beauty, of course, is one of the Trancendentals, and is one of the attributes of God. The saints and angels are priviledged to “see” God. They do not see as we see, however. God is Pure Spirit, so the seeing is a spiritual or intuitive experience, the Beatific Vision. All things were created by God, and the beauty we perceive in creatures derives from God, the source of all beauty. The inspirations which allow artists and musicians to create things of beauty come from God, Who is entitled to glorified by human creations, the products of His children, and by the beauty of humanity itself, and of all nature.
