Cornelio Fabro CSS (Flumignano, Udine, 24 August 1911 – Rome, 4 May 1995) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Stigmatine Order and a scholastic Thomist philosopher.
One of his major contributions to twentieth-century philosophy was to draw attention to the notion of "participation" in Thomas Aquinas' metaphysics.
[1] Fabro was born at Flumignano, Udine, in Northern Italy on 24 August 1911 to Angelo and Anna Zanello.
[2] He was the third of four children including two older brothers Antonio and Secondo, and a younger sister Alma Teresina.
Guardiano suggested visiting the "Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie" in Udine, after which he was cured.
After completing private studies at the Marian sanctuary at Ortonovo La Spezia in 1929 he transferred to the Curia Generalizia and International College of the Stigmatine Order at the convent of Sant'Agata dei Goti on via Mazzarino in Rome in order to begin his philosophy studies at the "Collegio Sant’Apolinare", the future Lateran University.
Fabro began studying for a Licentiate in theology at the Pontifical International Institute Angelicum, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum[5] On 20 December 1934 he received a prize from the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas for his monograph entitled Il principio di causalità, origine psicologica, formulazione filosofica, valore necessario ed universale (The Principle of Causality, its Psychological Origin, Philosophical Formulazation, and Necessary and Universal Value).
[7] In 1935-1936 he taught cosmology and psychology in Verona and studied natural science at the University of Padova.
In 1936-1937 Fabro continued his study of theology at the Angelicum and received a doctorate on 28 October 1937 with a dissertation on the metaphysical notion of participation according to Saint Thomas Aquinas entitled La nozione metafisica di partecipazione secondo S. Tommaso d'Aquino.
[7] During the period 1936 to 1940 Fabro also taught biology, rational psychology, and metaphysics at the Lateran University.
[7] Upon completing his licentiate studies in philosophy and theology, Fabro began his teaching career, which was to last more than 40 years.
It differs from the classical or traditional approach, exemplified by authors like Thomas de Vio Cajetan and Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, and from the transcendental approach, exemplified by authors like Joseph Marechal, Karl Rahner, and Emerich Coreth.
Fabro's Neo-Thomism and Suazezism is a spirited defense of Thomas Aquinas's position on the real distinction between essence and the act of being in creatures.
Fabro wrote a series of four articles from 1939-1941 on the real distinction and two of them from the journal Divus Thomas (Piacenza) were published as a book in 1941.
"Causal transcendental participation is the production of the common esse of all creatures by creation (De pot.