DE MARIA, MICHELE. - Jesuit, born in Cervinara (Avellino) on 8 February 1836, died in Rome on 16 February 1913. He was professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1880–98) when Thomism flourished again thanks to the encouraging and protective work of Leo XIII. From 1898 to 1913 he served as Prefect of Studies at the same university. His Thomism was fervent, though he allowed himself some personal interpretations.
Main work: *Philosophia peripatetico-scolastica ex fontibus Aristotelis et s. Thomae Aquinatis expressa...*, 3 vols. (2nd ed., Rome 1898), with a brief laudatory preface by Leo XIII. De Maria also edited various works of St Thomas Aquinas, notably *S. Thomae Aquinatis... Opuscula philosophica et theologica... Accedunt quaestiones quodlibetales...* (Città di Castello 1886).