Saint Albert the Great - November 15

Saint Albert the Great 

November 15 

Patron Saint of Scientists

“The aim of natural science

 is not simply to accept the

 statements of others, 

but to investigate the causes

 that are at work in nature.” 

 Saint Albert the Great

The Catholic Church is not opposed to science, in fact the list of cleric scientists is quite extensive, from a thirteenth century Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon, who has been described as a forerunner of the modern scientific method to the twenty-first century, Father Spitzer former President of Gonzaga University and current Director of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, who gives evidence of the existence of God from Physics. Today’s Saint is found amongst that list. 

Saint Albert was born around the year 1200 in Germany.  He studied at the University of Padua and joined the Dominican Order.  As a young priest, he was sent to the University of Paris where he became the first German Dominican friar to receive the degree of Master of Theology.  From Paris he was assigned to set up a house for his order in Cologne.  It was here in Cologne that he met Thomas Aquinas who became one of Albert’s greatest pupils. It was also in Cologne that he built a small laboratory where he would conduct experiments in chemistry and physics.

He became known as Saint Albert the Great and Universal Doctor of the Church in recognition of his extensive encyclopedic writings which contain most of the knowledge known in his day in the fields of physics, geography, astronomy, mineralogy, chemistry, biology, mathematics, scripture, philosophy and theology. 

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