Saint of the Month: Albert the Great

St. Albert the Great was a brilliant teacher, priest, and bishop, who was known in his time as “the wonder and miracle of our age”. Albert was born c. 1206 to the Count of Bollstädt and his wife at Lauingen in the Swabia region of southern Germany. As a teen with boundless enthusiasm for learning about the world around him, he went to Padua, Italy to study. There, he heard the preaching of the Dominican [Bl.] Jordan of Saxony and was attracted to the Dominican order. He entered the order at Padua in 1228 and served his novitiate at Bologna. He was ordained in c. 1233 and went to Cologne to teach. He spent most of the rest of his life there, except for teaching in other cities such as Paris and Strasbourg. One of his students at Cologne, [St.] Thomas Aquinas, he recognized to be a genius, and the two became lifelong friends.

TEACHER, DOMINICAN, AND BISHOP

Albert received his doctorate in Paris in 1245 and in 1254, was chosen Prior Provincial of a large province encompassing most of modern-day central and eastern Europe. While he held this position, he traveled on foot to regularly visit the forty Dominican houses in the province. In 1256, he went to Rome to advocate for the mendicant religious orders in response to the attacks of the theologian William of St. Armour. The controversy was over the growing popularity of mendicant order friars who were teaching at prominent universities, which was vigorously opposed by secular teachers. Pope Alexander IV was so impressed by Albert, he relied on him as his personal theologian while he was in Rome. In 1257, Albert resigned from his Provincialate to focus on study. In 1259, with two others, he authored a definitive curriculum for Dominican formation.  In 1260, he was consecrated a bishop at Regensburg. He again did his visitations on foot, because all his life, he loved to walk outdoors. Two years later, he resigned his bishopric to return to Cologne to teach. In 1274, he actively participated in the Council of Lyons, the purpose of which was to try to reunite the Eastern and Latin Churches after the eleventh century Great Schism. Beginning in 1278, his memory began to decline, most likely due to a stroke. Although his walking was greatly slowed, he was always able to enjoy his favorite hobby of walking. He died November 15, 1280, in his cell at Cologne, wearing his Dominican habit, with his brethren gathered around him in chant.

EXTRAORDINARY DEDICATION TO STUDYING GOD AND HIS CREATION

Not long after Albert’s death, he appeared to his confessor, telling him that because during his lifetime, he drew many souls out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of truth, God had brought six thousand souls out of purgatory. It is hard to relate the extent and import of Albert’s scholarship and wisdom. He mastered every known field of scientific study including but not limited to anatomy, anthropology, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, dentistry, geography, geology, mathematics, medicine, metaphysics, mineralogy, physics, physiology, psychology, and zoology. He wrote and lectured extensively on logic, Scripture, theology and Mariology and championed the truth that there is no conflict between faith and reason, nor between faith and science. He was a pioneer of the Scholastic method, using the teaching of Aristotle, and was largely responsible for exposing Europe to the writings of this brilliant Greek philosopher. Albert’s writings and teachings came from an approach of wonder and awe at the beauty and wisdom of God’s created world and a desire to live in pursuit of union with God. He became the patron of veterinarians and the father of veterinary science, especially due to his research on horses. His writings about the spherical nature of the earth were used by Christopher Columbus when he sailed out in search of east Asia, as well as Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the “New World” takes its name. In moral theology, he made advances in explaining that mental and physical health deficiencies can mitigate the responsibility a person has for his actions. Regarding Mariology, one of his biographers called him the “secretary…. of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. Indeed, his writings about Mary as the ideal woman culturally elevated womanhood and contributed to the rise of chivalric manners. Albert wrote extensively about the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament. While he was known to be severe when dealing with sinful behavior and untruth, he was kind and merciful as a confessor.

HOLINESS AND BRILLIANCE COMBINED

St. Albert the Great’s writings were so vast, they amount to an estimated twenty million words. They provide a sort of encyclopedia of contemporary scientific scholarship, much of which he corrected through his use of the scientific method. Even during his lifetime, he was known as Albertus Magnus, Latin for Albert the Great. With his towering intellect and love for good conversation, he was a teacher par excellence. A man of deep prayer, he recited the entire Psalter, reverently, every day. Not surprisingly, he needed very little sleep. He is usually known as “The Universal Doctor”. His remains rest at St. Andrew’s Church at Cologne and he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931. In addition to veterinarians, he is the patron of all scientists. His feast day is November 15.