Fr. Victor Brezik, CSB, and Houston philanthropist Hugh Roy Marshall, founders of the University of St. Thomas’ Center for Thomistic Studies, received the Order of St. Thomas award at the 2008 St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture, held on Jan. 31 on the University’s campus. The award is presented each year to persons who have testified to the value of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas in their writings, teachings, philanthropy or way of life.

In 1975, Fr. Brezik, a Basilian priest at the University, teamed up with Marshall to revive the teachings of medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas by establishing the Center for Thomistic Studies at UST.

In creating the Center, Fr. Brezik and Marshall, who graduated from UST in 1974 with a philosophy degree, established the only Ph.D. program at the University and the only graduate philosophy program in the United States uniquely focused on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The award was initiated by the Center for Thomistic Studies in 2006 to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding. Previous recipients include Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., and George Strake, Jr. president of the Strake Foundation in Houston.

This year’s St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture featured an address by Msgr. John Wippel, professor, The Catholic University of America, on “Thomas Aquinas and the Controversy Concerning Unity of Substantial Form in Human Beings.”

Pictured above from left to right: Dr. Christopher Martin, Fr. Victor Brezik, CSB, Hugh Roy Marshall, Dr. Robert Ivany