Commentary Par XXIX 97-102

For the 'darkness at noon' that overspread the world during the Crucifixion of Jesus, see Luke 23:44: 'It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.'  (See also Matthew 27:45 and Mark 15:33).  And see Grandgent (DDP Grandgent.Par.XXIX.97-102): 'To explain this darkness at the Crucifixion, some said that the moon left its course to make an eclipse, others that the sun hid its own rays.  Dionysius ([Par XXVIII 130]) favored the first explanation, St. Jerome the second.  Both are recorded by St. Thomas in Summa Theologiae III, q. 44, a. 2.  The second theory has the advantage of accounting for an obscuration "over all the land," whereas an ordinary eclipse would darken only a part of it.'