When Aquinas likened his work to straw, was that a retraction?
The short answer
No. After a revelation at Mass in 1273, Aquinas stopped writing, saying all he had written seemed like straw compared with what he had seen. No one has understood this as a retraction: Leo XIII promoted Thomism, and Aquinas was named a Doctor of the Church.
What happened
According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, on the feast of St. Nicholas in 1273 Aquinas received a revelation while celebrating Mass and wrote no more, leaving the Summa Theologiae unfinished. He told his secretary Reginald that all he had written seemed like straw after what had been revealed to him. He died three months later on his way to the Council of Lyons.
What it meant
His vision may have been of heaven, beside which everything else seems worthless, though we can only speculate.
Not a retraction
Scholars, hagiographers and Catholics generally have never taken his words as a retraction. Otherwise Pope Leo XIII would not have promoted Thomistic theology, and Aquinas would not have been named a Doctor of the Church. Aquinas is also reported to have heard Christ say, "You have written well of me, Thomas."
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