What is the exact nature of Aquinas's private revelation of Jesus to him?

St. Thomas Aquinas is known to make excellent **conceptual distinctions** in philosophy and theology, most critically in his philosophy and psychology of the human soul, the nature of truth & love in God as well as in a human person, the intra-Trinitarian relations and the works of the Trinity *ad extra*, the interaction of angels with humans (which exorcists use), and many many more areas. So it is reasonable to ask **how we would use St. Thomas's own distinctions to analyze his "private revelation" of Christ to him** where Aquinas "heard" Jesus said: > Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?" To which St. Thomas responded: > None other than Thyself, Lord (*source*: [this article](https://www.churchpop.com/when-christ-spoke-from-a-crucifix-the-mystical-vision-of-st-thomas-aquinas/)) My question has to do with the **nature of this experience** that I hope an answer will use St. Thomas's own distinctions to describe it. Is it ecstasy? Is it beatific vision? Is it private revelation? Is it a Vision? Is it Christophany? Is it apparition? Is it Word of Knowledge (that some Christians claim to have today in Charismatic circles)? Is it like St. Paul being transported to 3rd heaven? Is it an out of body experience? Was it audible, visible, or non-empirical but palpable? Did the 3 fellow Dominicans who witnessed the account hear it too? Or was it similar to private mental seeing like when the light of faith permeates the light of reason? The curious thing is that Aquinas's experience is not listed in the *Wikipedia* article on [Catholic Church approved list of private revelations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_revelations_approved_by_the_Catholic_Church) nor in *Wikipedia* article on [Visions of Jesus and Mary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_of_Jesus_and_Mary) . Was it an oversight on *Wikipedia* part? Or was the nature of the experience different than "private revelation" and "vision"? It is so widely cited even in scholarly biographies of St. Thomas Aquinas that we cannot deem it mere legend, but did the Vatican ever authenticated St. Thomas's experience in the first place?