The Jews faced different demographic challenges than Catholics, so that might account for the difference.
I wondered about the sexual reject idea after reading that Thomas Aquinas' father decided that his pudgy little boy didn't look fit for breeding, so he sent Thomas to a monastery at the age of five, while the father encouraged Thomas's better-looking brothers to marry and perpetuate the family.
From a simple Google search:
Thomas had eight siblings, and was the youngest child.
While the rest of the family's sons pursued military careers,[12] the family intended for Thomas to follow his uncle into the abbacy;[13] this would have been a normal career path for a younger son of southern Italian nobility.[14]
And biography.com asserts,
Before St. Thomas Aquinas was born, a holy hermit shared a prediction with his mother, foretelling that her son would enter the Order of Friars Preachers, become a great learner and achieve unequaled sanctity.
You're...
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