Warm weather helped celebrate the feast day of philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas. On Monday, Jan. 28, students, faculty and other members of the Saint Louis University community gathered to celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas by orating a nine-hour marathon of the Summa-Theologiae.

Hosted by the Philosophy Club, this is the sixth year for the Summa-Thon.

The event took place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside the Humanities Building in room 142 and even outside the building due to the warm January weather.

For six years running, the event has been consistent in its format: nine hours of person after person reading one article each from the Summa Theologiae’s 3,000 articles. “In nine hours we can cover just under 200 articles,” Gregory Beabout, associate professor of philosophy said. “That’s 200 different people, mostly students, faculty and staff from the University, consecutively reading one of St. Thomas’s answers from his encyclopedic masterpiece, about three minutes each.”

Unlike previous years, part of the event was held outdoors.

“The most remarkable thing about this year’s Summa-thon was the beautiful weather,” said Beabout. “The record-setting warm temperatures helped us make the decision to move the event outside for the afternoon.”

Last year, the event began reading the second volume of the Summa and is not expected to complete the whole work for another 10 years.

Ted Vitali, C.P., chair of the philosophy department, said the event was another success. “It has only grown over the years,” he said. “I presume it will continue on schedule for years to come, or until the Summa is fully read.

“I believe that Dr. Beabout and his crew, members of the Philosophy Club, have come up with a great idea. Apparently, many many people at SLU agree,” Vitali continued.

John Dupuy, president of the Philosophy Club, describes the event as Beabout’s “child,” beginning six years ago with only a handful of philosophy students and growing into an event for the entire campus.

“There’s a lot of people talking about it,” Dupuy said. “It’s almost got a ritualistic quality about it.”

This year, 189 people read in various languages including French, Spanish, Latin, English, Italian and German, according to junior Caroline Gutting who has attended the event every year since coming to SLU.

“My sense is that we have more and more people reading in various languages. St. Thomas wrote the Summa in Latin, and dozens of people read in Latin,” Beabout said. “It is not uncommon to hear four or five consecutive readers each speaking a language other than English.”

According to Beabout, the warm weather was not the only festivity of the day.

“Late in the day, we had a few alumni return to read, people who were involved with the very first Summa-thon,” he said.

Also student, Phil Hurley, S.J., made a repeat performance of Kermit the Frog reading the Summa. “It was priceless,” Beabout said.

According to Beabout, the Philosophy Club plans to continue the annual Summa-thon until the Summa is completed. “We’re not halfway through yet, and there are still a lot of great topics to cover,” he said.

For those students who have not had the pleasure of studying the Summa, the readings from this year focused on sin and scandal, though late in the day the topic turned to the nature of law. “Next year, the readings will focus on faith, hope and love,” Beabout said.

“The event is held each year to mark the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest philosophers of all time,” Beabout said. “It seems unlikely that we’ll get another day so warm for next year’s Summa-thon.”

Senior Teresa Barr said she became interested in the Summa-Thon through other philosophy students who promoted the event. This was her first year participating. “It gives the faculty, staff and students of Saint Louis University an opportunity to express their love and interest in the subject of philosophy and celebrate Aquinas’ feast day by reading his great work,” Barr said. “It was very intriguing and thought provoking. I will definitely be back next year to help keep the tradition alive for future generations of Aquinas lovers.”