St. Albert the Great

St. Albert the Great was born around 1200 at Lauingen in Bavaria (in modern Germany), and died on 15 November 1280 at Cologne. He joined the Dominican Order as a young man and became the most learned teacher of his age, lecturing at Paris and Cologne, where among his students was the young St. Thomas Aquinas, whose future greatness he famously foresaw. He later served as bishop of Regensburg before returning to teaching and writing.

Of boundless curiosity, he wrote on virtually every field of knowledge — theology, philosophy, astronomy, biology, chemistry, and more — earning the title Doctor Universalis ('the Universal Doctor'). He did much to introduce the thought of Aristotle to the Christian West and insisted that the careful study of nature and reason is no enemy to faith but a path to its deepening. Canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI, he is honored as the patron saint of natural scientists.