In the 1270s, Thomas Aquinas founded a Dominican academy in the monastery attached to San Domenico Maggiore. Extraordinary witness accounts from this time testify that the priest was able to levitate during meditation.

In one instance, the sacristan of the basilica witnessed Aquinas levitating while simultaneously speaking to Christ, who complimented the priest’s writings. When Aquinas died due to injuries sustained falling from a donkey, he’d leave behind a highly revered corpus of Christian philosophy and theology, in addition to the aforementioned left arm.