1280
St. Albert the Great Patron of Scientists a Church great intellect
very learned in
biblical studies and theology
Colóniæ Agrippínæ sancti Albérti Epíscopi
et Confessóris, ex Ordine Prædicatórum, cognoménto
Magni, sanctitáte et doctrína célebris, quem Pius Papa
Undécimus Doctórem universális Ecclésiæ
declarávit, et Pius Duodécimus cultórum scientiárum
naturálium cæléstem apud Deum Patrónum constítuit.
At Cologne, St. Albert, surnamed the Great, bishop and confessor of the
Order of Preachers, renowned for his holiness and learning. Pope Pius
XI appointed him as Doctor of the universal Church, and Pius XII appointed
him as heavenly patron of those studying the natural sciences.
ST ALBERT THE GREAT, BISHOP
OF REGENSBURG, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
IT was his contemporaries who dubbed St Albert "the Great";
they also, referring to the depth and scope of his learning, called
him "the Universal Doctor", and said that he was "a man no iess
than godlike in all knowledge, so that he may fitly be called
the wonder and miracle of our age".
Even Friar Roger Bacon regarded him, more modestly,
as "an authority", and his works as original sources".
That he was the master of St Thomas Aquinas has added to his
fame, but his contemporaries recognized that he was great in his own right
as certainly as posterity has done.
He was a Swabian by descent, born of the family of
Bollstädt at the castle of Lauingen on the Danube in 1206. Little
is known of his youth or the age at which he went to the University
of Padua, but in 1222 Bd Jordan of Saxony, second master general
of the Friars Preachers, wrote from that city to Bd Diana de
Andelo at Bologna that he had received ten postulants for the order,
"and two of them are the sons of great lords, counts in Germany ".
One of them was Albert, whose uncle in Padua had tried to keep
him away from the Dominican church, but had failed before
the influence of Bd Jordan. When he heard that his
son was clothed as a mendicant the Count of Bollstadt was most indignant,
and there was talk of retrieving him by force, but nothing came of it for
Albert was discreetly removed to another friary. This was probably
Cologne, where he was teaching in 1228 ; afterwards he
supervised the studies and taught at Hildesheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau,
Regensburg, Strasburg and back again at Cologne, making for himself
a great reputation throughout the German province. He was
instructed to go to Paris, then as always the intellectual centre of western
Europe, and he was there some years, lecturing under a
master until he himself took his master's degree. At the
end of this time the Dominicans decided to open four new studia generalia, and in 1248 St Albert
was sent to be regent of that at Cologne, where until 1252 he
had among his students a young friar called Thomas Aquinas.
In those days philosophy was understood as the totality
of the main branches of knowledge which could be known by the
natural powers of the mind: logic, metaphysics, mathematics,
ethics and what we now call physical science; and the writings
of St Albert, which fill thirty-eight quarto volumes in print, include works
on all these subjects as well as biblical and theological
treatises and sermons. He stands beside Roger Bacon as a
great natural scientist, whose aim, he says, "is to investigate
the causes that are at work in nature", and some scholars have claimed that
he did even more than Bacon himself for the advancement of scientific study.
He was an authority on physics, geography, astronomy, mineralogy,
alchemy (i.e. chemistry) and biology, so that it is not surprising
that legends grew up that he had and used magical powers. He
wrote a treatise on botany and another on human and animal physiology,
in the course of which he disposed, from personal observation,
of various fables current at that time, as that of Pliny that eagles wrap
their eggs in fox-skin and leave them to hatch in the sun. As
a geographer he has received especial praise in later times ;
he traced the chief mountain ranges of Europe, explained
the influence of latitude on climate, and gave an excellent physical description
of the earth, which he demonstrated by an elaborate argument to be spherical
in shape.
But the principal fame of St Albert as a doctor resides not
in these achievements, but in the fact that, realizing the autonomy of philosophy
and seeing the use that could be made of the philosophy of Aristotle in
ordering the science of theology, he re-wrote the works of the Philosopher
so as to make them acceptable to Christian critics, and by the application
of Aristotelean methods and principles to the study of theology inaugurated
(with the Englishman Alexander of Hales) the scholastic system which was
to be brought to perfection by his pupil St Thomas Aquinas. He was the principal
pioneer and forerunner of the "preferred system of the Church"; he collected
and selected the materials, even laid the foundations; St Thomas built the
edifice.
Throughout his long years of teaching Albert was writing as well,
and he continued the work throughout his otherwise busy life. While directing
the Cologne studium his practical abilities became widely recognized, he
was in request to adjust administrative and other disputes, and in 1254 he
was made prior provincial of his order in Germany. Two years later he attended
in that capacity the chapter general in Paris which forbade Friars Preachers
at the universities to be called " master" or " doctor ", or anything but
their right name. He himself had already been dubbed "the Universal Doctor"
and his prestige had helped to provoke the jealousy against the friars of
the secular professors. On account of this, which had led to delay in granting
degrees to St Thomas and St Bonaventure, Albert went to Italy to defend the
mendicant orders against the attacks being made on them at Paris and elsewhere,
especially as voiced by William of Saint-Amour in a tract "on the Dangers
of these Present Times".
While he was in Rome, St Albert filled the office of master of
the sacred palace (i.e. the pope's personal theologian and canonist, always
a Dominican friar) and preached in the churches of the City. In 1200 he
received order from the Holy See to undertake the government of the diocese
of Regensburg, a church, he was informed, that was "turned upside-down in
spiritual as well as temporal matters". He was bishop for under two years,
Pope Urban IV then accepting his resignation; he did much to remedy the
distresses of the diocese, but the scheming of powerful interests and the
stubbornness of entrenched abuses made the task too much for him.
To the great joy of his master general, Bd Humbert of Romans, who had in
vain tried to induce Alexander IV not to make him a bishop, St Albert returned
to the studium at Cologne. But the next year he was called away again, this
time to help the Franciscan Berthold of Ratisbon to preach the crusade in
Germany. This over, he went back again to Cologne and taught and wrote there
in peace till 1274, when he was bidden to attend the fourteenth general council
at Lyons. Just before he set out he heard of the death of his beloved
disciple, Thomas Aquinas (it is said to have been revealed directly to him
by God), but in spite of this shock and his advancing age St Albert took
an active part in the assembly; he worked with Bd Peter of Tarentaise (Innocent
X) and William of Moerbeke for the reunion of the Greeks, throwing all his
influence to the side of peace and reconciliation.
St Albert probably made his last public appearance
three years later, when some of the writings of St Thomas were seriously
attacked by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, and other theologians.
He hurried to Paris to defend the teaching of his dead disciple, teaching
that was in great measure his own as well; he challenged the university to
examine himself personally upon it, but he could not avert the local condemnation
of certain points. In 1278, during a lecture, his memory suddenly failed;
there is a story, insufficiently attested, that he related to his auditors
how when he was a young friar he had been very discouraged and strongly inclined
to return to secular life; how our Lady had appeared to him in a prophetic
dream and promised to ask for him illuminating grace in his studies if he
would persevere, but that his powers would fail again in old age, and that
this lapse was a warning of the end. The loss of memory became acute,
the strength of his mind failed, and after two years St Albert died, peacefully
and without illness, sitting in his chair among his brethren at Cologne,
on November 15, 1280.
It has been said that, "Throughout Albert's writings there are
frequent signs that his whole life was one of remarkable holiness, but there
are also signs that as long as he wielded a pen he fell short of the saintly
suppression of self that distinguished St Thomas. It is not until Albert
has laid aside his pen and taken to expressing his profoundest thought in
tears that we feel ourselves in the presence of a candidate for canonization."
This gradual attainment of the heights of sanctity is paralleled by the slow
journey of Albert to the altars of the Church. He was not beatified
till the year 1622 and, though there was considerable increase in devotion
to him, especially in Germany, canonization did not follow. In 1872 and
again in 1927 the German bishops petitioned the Holy See to canonize him,
without apparent effect. Then, on December 16, 1931, Pope Pius XI by a detretal
letter proclaimed Albert the Great a doctor of the Church, thereby equivalently
declaring him to be a saint and, moreover, one whose feast should be observed
throughout the Western church. St Albert had, said the pope, "that rare and
divine gift, scientific instinct, in the highest degree...he is exactly the
saint whose example should inspire the present age, which so ardently seeks
peace and is so full of hope in its scientific discoveries". He is
the patron saint of students of the natural sciences.
Especially since the canonization,
a number of excellent lives of St Albert have been published, and in nearly
all of them a careful account is given of the sources. Of medieval
biographies the most important is that of Peter of Prussia, though it was
not written unitil towards the close of the fifteenth century. An earlier
sketch was produced in the middle of the fourteenth century by Henry of Herford
(Herford in Westphalia ; by some perversity many translators from the German
present the name as Hereford, which is quite a different place), and before
this we have sundry short appreciations in the Vitae fratrum of Gerard de Fracheto,
the Bonum universale of Thomas
of Cantimpre, and the De yiris ilustribus
by John of Cologne. Modern investigators, who have set about their task
in a more scientiflc spirit, point out that a considerable amount of biographical
material is latent in St Albert's own writings. His commentaries on the
gospels and his sermons contain not infrequent references to incidents of
his childhood or to his experiences as bishop. Further, we may obtain
light from documents of a more or less official character, for example, the
Acta capitulorum generalium
O.P. (ed. Reichert, vol. i, 1898), or such a collection as H. Finke's Ungedruckte Dominicaner Briefe des XIII Jahrhunderts
(1891). Using these or similar materials, Quétif and Echard
in their Scriptores Ordinir Praedicatorum,
vol. (17,9), had already compiled a reliablo literary portrait of
the saint ; to which a valuable supplement was provided in the series of
articles by P. von Loe in the Analecta
Bollandiana, vols. xix to xxi (1900-2), and in his Kritische Strezfzuge auf dem Gebiete der Albertus-Magnus-Forschung
(1904). Another notable contribution to the understanding of St Albert's
influence on medieval culture was that of Emil Michael, Geschithte des deutschen Volkes, vol. iii (1903), pp.
69-128, and also M. Grabmann's articles in the Zeitschnftfijr Kath. Theologie, vol.
111(1928). Among recent lives may be mentioned H. Wilma, Albert the Great (1933); T. M. Schwertner,
Saint Albert the Great (1933) A. Garreau, Saint
Albert le Grand (1932) ; H.
C. Scheeben, Albert der Grosse
(1931); and a good general sketch by Sister M. Albert (1948). Other
aspects of St Albert's work have been dealt with by A. R. Bachiller, Alberta Magna y las Ciencias empiricas
(1933) Bonné, Die Erkenntnislehre
Albert: den Grossen (1935) ; H. Fleckenstein, Die theologische Lehre von der materiellen Welt (1933)
M. M. Gorce, L'E,ssor de la pensee au
moyen age, Albert le Grand (1933) R. Lien; Die Naturkunde von der menschlichen Seele nach
Albert dem Grossen (1933), etc. There is a good bibliography
in the life by Wilms, to supplement which consult the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. 1i(1933),
pp. 183-190.
ALBERT THE GREAT: NO CONTRAST
BETWEEN FAITH AND SCIENCE
VATICAN CITY, 24 MAR 2010 (VIS) - In today's general audience,
celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope turned his attention to St. Albert
the Great, whom he described as "one of the greatest masters of scholastic
theology".
The saint, who was born in Germany at the beginning of the thirteenth
century, "studied what were known as the 'liberal arts': grammar, rhetoric,
dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music; in other words, general
culture, and he diplayed that typical interest for the natural sciences
which would soon become his chosen field of specialisation".
He entered the Order of Preachers and, following his ordination
as a priest, had the opportunity to complete his theological studies at the
most famous university of his age, Paris. From there he went to Cologne,
taking Thomas Aquinas with him, his own "outstanding student". Pope Alexander
IV made use of Albert's theological counsel, and subsequently appointed him
as bishop of Regensburg.
Albert, recalled the Holy Father, "contributed to the 1274 Council
of Lyon, called by Pope Gregory X to favour the unification of the Latin
and Greek Churches following their separation in the great Eastern Schism
of 1054. He clarified the ideas of Thomas Aquinas, who had been the subject
of entirely unjustified objections and even condemnations".
The German saint died in Cologne in the year 1280, and was canonised
and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931, "undoubtedly
an appropriate recognition for this great man of God" who was also "an outstanding
scholar, not only of the truth of faith but in many other fields of knowledge".
For this reason too, "Pope Pius XII named him as patron of the natural sciences,
also giving him the title of 'Doctor universalis' because of the vastness
of his interests and knowledge".
"Above all, St. Albert shows that there is no opposition between
faith and science. ... He reminds us that there is friendship between science
and faith, and that scientists can, through their vocation to study nature,
follow an authentic and absorbing path of sanctity", said the Holy Father.
"St. Albert the Great opened the door to the complete acceptance
of the thought of Aristotle into the philosophy and theology of the Middle
Ages, an acceptance that was later definitively elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas.
This acceptance of what we may call pagan or pre-Christian philosophy was
an authentic cultural revolution for the time. Yet many Christian thinkers
feared Aristotle's philosophy", especially as it had been interpreted in
such a was as to appear "entire irreconcilable with Christian faith. Thus
a dilemma arose: are faith and reason in contrast with one another or not?
"Here lies one of the great merits of St. Albert: he rigorously
studied the works of Aristotle, convinced that anything that is truly reasonable
is compatible with faith as revealed in Sacred Scripture", the Pope added.
"St. Albert was able to communicate these concepts in a simple
and understandable way. A true son of St. Dominic, he readily preached to
the people of God who were won over by his words and the example of his
life".
The Pope concluded his catechesis by asking God "that the holy
Church may never lack learned, pious and wise theologians like St. Albert
the Great, and that He may help each of us to accept the 'formula for sanctity'
which Albert followed in his own life: 'Wanting everything I want for the
glory of God just as, for His glory, God wants everything He wants'. In
other words, we must always conform ourselves to the will of God in order
to want and do everything always and only for His glory".
AG/ALBERT THE GREAT/... VIS 100324 (620)
On St. Albert the Great
"Scientific Study Is Transformed Then Into a Hymn of Praise"
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the
address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in St. Peter's
Square.
Dear brothers and sisters,
One of the greatest teachers of Medieval theology is St. Albert the Great.
The title "great" (magnus) with which he has passed into history, indicates
the vastness and depth of his doctrine, which he coupled with holiness of
life. But already his contemporaries did not hesitate to attribute excellent
titles to him; one of his disciples, Ulrich of Strasbourg, described him
as "wonder and miracle of our age."
Born in Germany at the beginning of the 13th century, he was still young
when he went to Italy, to Padua, seat of one of the most famous universities
of the Middle Ages. He dedicated himself to the study of the so-called liberal
arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and
music, that is, of the general culture, manifesting that typical interest
for the natural sciences, which would soon become the favorite field of his
specialization. During his stay in Padua, he frequented the church of the
Dominicans, whom he later joined with the profession of religious vows. The
hagiographic sources lead one to understand that Albert matured this decision
gradually. The intense relationship with God, the example of holiness of
the Dominican Friars, the listening of sermons of Blessed Giordano of Saxony,
successor of St. Dominic in the leadership of the Order of Preachers, were
the decisive factors that helped him to overcome every doubt, overcoming
also family resistance. Often, in the years of youth, God speaks to us and
indicates the plan of our life. As for Albert, so for all of us, personal
prayer nourished by the Word of the Lord, the frequenting of the sacraments
and the spiritual guidance of enlightened men are the means to discover and
follow the voice of God. He received the religious habit from Blessed Giordano
of Saxony.
After his priestly ordination, the superiors sent him to teach in several
centers of theological study adjacent to monasteries of the Dominican Fathers.
His brilliant intellectual qualities enabled him to perfect the study of
theology in the most famous university of the time, that of Paris. From then
on St. Albert undertook that extraordinary activity of writer, which he would
then follow for his whole life.
He was assigned prestigious tasks. In 1248 he was charged with opening
a theological study at Cologne, one of the most important administrative centers
of Germany, where he lived in successive stages, and which became his adopted
city. From Paris he took with him an exceptional pupil, Thomas Aquinas. The
merit would suffice of having been St. Thomas' teacher to foster profound
admiration toward St. Albert. Established between these two great theologians
was a relationship of mutual esteem and friendship, human attitudes that
help much in the development of science. In 1254, Albert was elected Provincial
of the "Provincia Teutoniae" -- Teutonic Province -- of the Dominican Fathers,
which embraced communities spread over a vast territory in Central and Northern
Europe. He distinguished himself for the zeal with which he exercised this
ministry, visiting the communities and constantly recalling his fellow brothers
to fidelity, to the teachings and examples of St. Dominic.
His gifts did not pass unnoticed and the Pope of that time, Alexander
IV, wanted Albert next to him for a certain time in Anagni -- where the
Pope frequently went -- in Rome itself and in Viterbo, to make use of his
theological counsel. The same Supreme Pontiff appointed him bishop of Regensburg,
a great and famous diocese, which was, however, going through a difficult
time. From 1260 to 1262 Albert carried out this ministry with tireless dedication,
succeeding in taking peace and concord to the city, reorganizing parishes
and convents, and giving a new impulse to charitable activities.
In the years 1263-1264 Albert preached in Germany and in Bohemia, charged
by Pope Urban IV, to return then to Cologne to take up again his mission
of docent, scholar and writer. Being a man of prayer, of learning and of
charity, he enjoyed great authoritativeness in his interventions, in several
affairs of the Church and of the society of the time. He was above all a
man of reconciliation and peace in Cologne, where the archbishop had entered
into harsh opposition with the city's institutions; he spent himself during
the unfolding of the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, convoked by Pope Gregory
X to foster the union between the Latin and Greek Churches, after the separation
of the Great Schism of the East of 1054; he clarified the thought of Thomas
Aquinas, who was the object of objections and even of wholly unjustified
condemnations.
He died in the cell of his monastery of the Holy Cross in Cologne in 1280,
and very soon was venerated by his fellow brothers. The Church proposed
him to the devotion of the faithful with his beatification in 1622 and his
canonization in 1931, when Pope Pius XI proclaimed him Doctor of the Church.
It was undoubtedly an appropriate recognition of this great man of God and
illustrious scholar not only of the truths of the faith, but of very many
other sectors of learning; in fact, glancing at the titles of his very numerous
works, we realize that his culture was something prodigious, and that his
encyclopedic interest led him to be concerned not only with philosophy and
theology, as other contemporaries, but also with every other discipline
then known, from physics to chemistry, from astronomy to mineralogy, from
botany to zoology. For this reason Pope Pius XII named him patron of cultivators
of the natural sciences and he is also called "Doctor universalis" precisely
because of the vastness of his interest and learning.
Of course, the scientific methods adopted by St. Albert the Great are
not those that were to be affirmed in subsequent centuries. His method consisted
simply in observation, description and classification of phenomenons studied,
but thus he opened the door for future works.
He still has much to teach us. Above all, St. Albert shows that between
faith and science there is no opposition, notwithstanding some episodes of
misunderstanding recorded in history. A man of faith and prayer, as St. Albert
the Great was, can cultivate serenely the study of the natural sciences and
progress in the knowledge of the micro and macro cosmos, discovering the laws
proper of matter, because all this concurs to feed the thirst for and love
of God. The Bible speaks to us of creation as the first language through which
God -- who is supreme intelligence, who is Logos -- reveals to us something
of himself. The Book of Wisdom, for example, states that the phenomena of
nature, gifted with grandeur and beauty, are as the works of an artist, through
which, by analogy, we can know the Author of creation (cf. Wisdom 13:5).
With a classic similarity in the Medieval Age and the Renaissance one can
compare the natural world with a book written by God, which we read on the
basis of several approaches of the sciences (cf. Address to the participants
in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Oct. 31, 2008).
How many scientists, in fact, in the wake of St. Albert the Great, have
carried forward their research inspired by wonder and gratitude before a
world that, in the eyes of scholars and believers, seemed and seems the
good work of a wise and loving Creator! Scientific study is transformed then
into a hymn of praise. It was well understood by a great astrophysicist
of our times, whose cause of beatification has been introduced, Enrico Medi,
who wrote: "Oh, you mysterious galaxies ... I see you, I calculate you,
I understand you, I study you and discover you, I penetrate you and I am
immersed in you. From you I take the light and I do science, I take the
motion and do science, I take the sparkling of colors and make poetry; I
take you stars in my hands, and trembling in the unity of my being I raise
you beyond yourselves, and in prayer I hand you to the Creator, that only
through me you stars can adore" (The Works. Hymn to Creation).
St. Albert the Great reminds us that between science and faith there is
friendship, and that the men of science can undertake, through their vocation
to the study of nature, a genuine and fascinating journey of sanctity.
His extraordinary openness of mind is revealed also in a cultural operation
that he undertook with success, that is, in the acceptance and evaluation
of the thought of Aristotle. Spreading at the time of St. Albert, in fact,
was knowledge of numerous works of this great Greek philosopher who lived
in the fourth century before Christ, above all in the realm of ethics and
metaphysics. They demonstrated the force of reason, explained with lucidity
and clarity the meaning and structure of reality, of its intelligibility,
the value and end of human actions. St. Albert the Great opened the door
for the complete reception of the philosophy of Aristotle in Medieval philosophy
and theology, a reception elaborated later in a definitive way by St. Thomas.
This reception of a philosophy, let us say, pagan and pre-Christian was
an authentic cultural revolution for that time. And yet, many Christian
thinkers feared Aristotle's philosophy, non-Christian philosophy, above
all because, presented by its Arab commentators, it was interpreted in a
way of appearing, at least in some points, as altogether irreconcilable
with the Christian faith. Thus a dilemma was posed: are faith and reason
in opposition to one another or not?
Here is one of the great merits of St. Albert: with scientific rigor he
studied the works of Aristotle, convinced that everything that is rational
is compatible with the faith revealed in sacred Scriptures. In other words,
St. Albert the Great, thus contributed to the formation of an autonomous philosophy,
different from theology and united to it only by the unity of the truth.
Thus was born in the 13th century a clear distinction between these two learnings,
philosophy and theology, which, in dialogue between them, cooperate harmoniously
in the discovery of the authentic vocation of man, thirsty for truth and
blessedness: and it is above all theology, defined by St. Albert as "affective
science," which indicates to man his call to eternal joy, a joy that gushes
from full adherence to the truth.
St. Albert the Great was able to communicate these concepts in a simple
and comprehensible way. Authentic son of St. Dominic, he preached willingly
to the people of God, which were conquered by his word and the example of
his life.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray to the Lord so that there will
never be lacking in the Holy Church learned, pious and wise theologians
like St. Albert the Great and may he help each one of us to make our own
the "formula of sanctity" that he followed in his life: "To want everything
that I want for the glory of God, to wish and do everything only and always
for his glory."
[Translation by ZENIT] [The Holy Father then greeted the people
in several languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now
turn to Saint Albert, better known as Albertus Magnus, Albert the Great.
A universal genius whose interests ranged from the natural sciences to philosophy
and theology, Albert entered the Dominicans and, after studies in Paris,
taught in Cologne. Elected provincial of the Teutonic province, he served
as bishop of Regensburg for four years and then returned to teaching and
writing. He played an important part in the Council of Lyons, and he worked
to clarify and defend the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas, his most brilliant
student. Albert was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope
Pius XI, and Pope Pius XII named him the patron of the natural sciences.
Saint Albert shows us that faith is not opposed to reason, and that the
created world can be seen as a "book" written by God and capable of being
"read" in its own way by the various sciences. His study of Aristotle also
brought out the difference between the sciences of philosophy and theology,
while insisting that both cooperate in enabling us to discover our vocation
to truth and happiness, a vocation which finds its fulfillment in eternal
life.
I welcome all the English-speaking visitors, especially a group of priests,
Religious and seminarians visiting from the Philippines. Upon all the English-speaking
pilgrims and your families, I invoke God's abundant blessings. ©Copyright
2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[He concluded in Italian:] Finally, I greet young people, the sick and
newlyweds. May the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which we celebrate tomorrow,
be for all an invitation to follow the example of Mary Most Holy: for you,
dear young people, may it translate into prompt availability to the call of
the Father, so that you can be evangelical leaven in our society; for you,
dear sick, may it be a stimulus to renew the serene and confident acceptance
of the divine will and transform your suffering into a means of redemption
for the whole of humanity; may Mary's yes inspire in you, dear newlyweds,
an ever more generous commitment in building a family founded on mutual love
and eternal Christian values. [Translation by ZENIT]
He studied at the University of Padua and later taught at Hildesheim,
Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Regensburg, and Strasbourg. He then taught at the
University of Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1245. He was among
the first and greatest of the natural scientists, gaining a reputation for
expertise in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, metaphysics,
and mathematics. He trained and directed a pupil who gave the world a concise,
clear, and perfect scientific exposition and defence of Christian Doctrine;
under God, therefore, we owe to Albertus Magnus the "Summa Theologica" of
St. Thomas who died before Albert(1274). He was also very learned in biblical
studies and theology.
<>
Albert the Great, OP B Dr. (RM) (also known as Albertus
Magnus) Born in Lauingen, Swabia, Germany, c. 1207; died in Cologne, 1280;
beatified in 1622; canonized and named a doctor of the Church in 1931 by
Pope Pius XI.
St. Albert Image of Saint Alfred the Great courtesy of Saint Charles Borromeo
Church
Among Christians there often arises a dispute regarding the relative merits
of science and theology, of intellectual versus spiritual understanding.
Some say that the two are irreconcilable, forgetting that, according to the
technical definition, myths (such as the Creation Story) offer more than
simply a surface explanation of the mechanics of science. Studying the life
of Saint Albert the Great should put aside these disputes.
<>Today in Cologne, the
spires of a building began seven centuries earlier still point to heaven.
It is only a legend that credits the design of the cathedral to Saint Albert
the Great. But it is so typical of his own life, pointing all beauty to
heaven, that it is a legend that is very easy to believe. Albert, who even
secular history calls "the Great," spent his life in teaching that science
and faith have no quarrel, and that all earthly loveliness and order can
be traced directly to God.
Early Life
Albert was born in a castle in the diocese of Bavaria, the eldest
son of the count of Bollstaedt. Albert was of small stature, but strongly
built, having gigantic shoulders and a mole on one eyelid.
Albert's keen observation, which was later to show itself in
his scientific works, had its initial training in the woods near his father's
castle, where he and his brother Henry--who also became a Dominican--hunted
with hawks and hounds, and became experts in falconry. Their first education
was at home under private tutors. That both his brother Henry and
his sister also became Dominicans attests to the piety of his family.
In 1222, at the age of 16, he was sent to
study law at the famous university of Padua (some say Bologna) under supervision
of his uncle who was a canon there. He proved to be an outstanding student,
and a brilliant future lay before him in a well-paid career. But God had
other plans for Saint Albert.
The Call
Here in Italy Albert met Jordan
of Saxony, a fellow-countryman and the second master-general of the Dominican
Order following the death of Saint Dominic on August 4, 1221. Jordan's enormous
charisma earned him the nickname 'Siren of the Schools' as he travelled
from place to place seeking recruits for the young order. Albert was greatly
affected by what he heard, and vowed to become a Dominican.
He wavered, though, both because he doubted whether he could persevere
and because his uncle opposed him. On the false pretext that travel helps
form the character of a youth, his uncle took him on a trip to Venice, and
at the same time obtained from the pope an annulment of the vow that he thought
so rash. But what can a man, even a priest, do against the will of God?
On their return Albert went to the University of Padua, where he encountered
the crisis of his life when he heard another sermon by Blessed Jordan. The
preacher spoke of those young men who wavered between certainty and doubt,
who hesitated because they feared they might not persevere, when in reality
they ought to offer themselves entirely to God and trust in him.
Albert was astonished at what he heard. Going after Blessed Jordan he
said, "Master, who has laid bear my heart to you?" Blessed Jordan comforted
him, explaining that he had not been addressing any particular individual,
but all alike who might be so affected, yet no doubt this was a message
of God to him personally; transfixed by these words, he immediately offered
himself. He was received into the Order, probably in 1223, and completed
his theological studies.
A legend is told of this period which serves to bring out both the greatness
of Albert's science and his love for Our Lady. Albert, it is related, had
not worn the white habit for long when it became plain to him that he was
no match for the mental wizards with whom he was studying. Anything concrete,
which he could take apart and study, he could understand, but the abstract
sciences were too much for him.
He decided to run away from it all; planning a quiet departure,
he carefully laid a ladder against the wall and waited for his opportunity.
As he was kneeling for one last Hail Mary before he should go over the wall,
Our Lady appeared to him. She reproached him gently for his forgetfulness
of her--why had he not remembered to ask her for what he wanted? Then she
gave him the gift of science he so much desired, and disappeared. Whatever
the truth behind the legend--and it has survived, almost unchanged, through
the many years--it is equally certain that Albert was a devout client of
Our Lady and a master scientist.
Teaching
Albert was ordained a priest in 1228. He was then sent to teach in Cologne,
where his critical lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard made his name;
he afterward came to be known as the greatest German scholar of the Middle
Ages. Later he taught in Hildesheim, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Regensburg (Ratisbon)
for two years, Strasbourg and again in Cologne. He traveled from one place
to another on foot, preaching, praying, and observing. His mind was receptive,
daring, modern, and picked up an extraordinary amount of information. From
the first his great erudition had been recognized, to say nothing of his
deep piety and humility.
Albert rejected nothing of value that his age could offer him, doing so
not out of a superficial syncretism, which would try to please everybody,
but out of his concern not to lose anything that might be an element of the
truth.
From 1240 to 1248 Albert was
at the monastery of Saint-Jacques in Paris; Place Maubert and Rue Maitre-Albert
in the Latin Quarter evoke his memory, while the Rue du Fouarre recalls
the crowd of students who gathered round his pulpit, seated on their small
bundles of straw.
It was in Paris that he had the happiness of seeing a quiet
student from the Kingdom of Sicily rise like a brilliant star that would
outshine all the others. What must it have been like to watch the mind of
Saint Thonas Aquinas develop and unfold to the wisdom of time and eternity,
and to help him open the doors to profound truth?
Albert was one of the first to recognize, cultivate, and proclaim
the brilliance of his good friend and student Saint Thomas Aquinas. It takes
a man of great humility and great sanctity to see and cultivate the potential
for it in others, and these Albert had.
Albert took Thomas under his wing, assigned him a room adjoining
his own, and for nearly five years was his inseparable companion. They studied
together in both Paris, where Albert taught and earned his doctorate in
theology in 1244-45, and in Cologne. He helped adapt the Scholastic method,
which applied Aristotelian methods to revealed doctrine, an approach that
was further developed by Saint Thomas.
In 1248 Albert again moved to University of Cologne, where
he served as regent of the new studia generalia until 1254, when he was
elected provincial of the Teutonia, a vast Dominican province including
Alsace, Belgium, and Germany as far as the frontiers of Poland and Hungary.
He personally visited all the monasteries in his province, convened chapters,
imposed penances, ensured that observances were respected, and, above all,
preached by his own example.
In 1256 Albert went to Rome, where he defended the mendicant
orders against William of Saint Armour (who was condemned later in the year
by Pope Alexander IV). Then he served for a time as the personal theologian
to the pope and professor of Holy Scripture. By 1257, when a general chapter
was held in Florence, Albert had completed his mandate and gladly resigned
his provincialatae to return to his studies and his pulpit in Cologne. But,
unfortunately for him and for his pupils, not for very long.
During his short return to study, together with Thomas Aquinas
and Peter of Tarentais, Albert drew up a new curriculum of study for the
Dominicans (1259).
As Bishop
The time for study was interrupted too soon, when on January
5, 1260, Pope Alexander IV appointed Albert bishop of Regensburg (Ratisbon)
against his wishes and, though the master general tried the stop the appointment,
very reluctantly Albert was obliged to accept. Vigorous reforms were needed
in Regensburg and Albert was the man for the job.
The new bishop used his authority with severity against those
who were injuring the Church in her temporal possessions. He cleaned up
the administration, ordered economies, put the debts in order, solicited
generous gifts, and restored deteriorating buildings. By his own example
he showed his priests a life of purity, strict poverty, harsh penance, and
piety; he helped greatly to restore to fervor a diocese in disorder. He
dealt severely with his clergy, condemning their concubinage, idleness and
simony.
As for his episcopal robes, he just settled for a pair of stout
shoes, which he needed for his long journeys on foot. The people were astonished
and called him "the bishop in clogs," or simply, "Clodhopper." Saint Clodhopper
for God, forever in the march along the paths of the Gospel!
The clergy resented his simplicity and rejected his reforms,
and the avaricious nobles refused to return the Church's property. Once the
worst problems were corrected, Albert clearly recognized that he could serve
God better from a pulpit. Albert felt called back to his life's work of teaching
and the restoration of theology.
After two years as bishop, he journeyed to Rome and asked to
be relieved of the office. The petition was granted, but he was appointed
to preach the crusade in the German-speaking countries, a work he continued
for several years with a companion preacher, the Franciscan Berthold of
Ratisbon, going as far as Lithuania. These labors ended with the death of
Pope Urban IV. And Albert returned to Wurzburg (where he lived for three
years), Strasbourg, and once more to Cologne in 1270 to teach again under
the obedience of the Dominican Order.
Old Age
For the last dozen years of his life he taught theology in
Cologne, with a break in 1274 to take an active part in the general council
of Lyons, working for the reunion of the Greek and Roman Churches. Albert's
sadness at the failure of the council was surpassed by the death of Thomas
Aquinas, age 49, on the road from Rome to the council in the little monastery
of Hautecombe. He died calmly while making a commentary on the Song of Songs.
Thomas's last wish, as he told the monks attending him, was to eat a good
French herring. Such is the simplicity of saints.
Albert wept bitterly that the 'glory and ornament of the world'
had gone. He outlived his beloved pupil by several years, and, in extreme
old age, he walked halfway across Europe to defend a thesis of Thomas's that
was challenged. He fiercely and brilliantly defended Saint Thomas and his
position against Bishop Stephen Tempier of Paris and a group of theologians
at the university there in 1277.
On his return to the monastery
at Cologne, Albert ceased teaching forever and retired permanently to his
cell. He had kept the innocence and freshness of his faith, and prayed like
a child. He love the Virgin Mary with tenderly, and wrote one of his most
beautiful theological treatises in her praise. For the last two years of
his life, Albert suffered from increasing memory loss and ill health, which
led to his death in Cologne on November 15, 1280. Saint Albert is enshrined
in the church of Saint Andreas in Cologne.
Works
Albert had an enquiring mind, ranking beside Roger Bacon as
one of the first and greatest natural scientists. He was an experimenter and
a classifier at a time when all experimental knowledge was under suspicion.
There was not a field in which he did not at least try his hand, and his
keenness of mind and precision of detail make his remarks valuable, even
though, because he lacked facts which we now have, his conclusions were incomplete.
It is difficult to estimate his vast erudition, the acuteness
of mind and keenness of intellect of this learned and saintly man. In philosophy
his work exhibited the highest achievement of human reason when thrown on
its own resources.
The whole realm of nature and grace are covered by his encyclopedic
knowledge; he wrote even more than Saint Thomas Aquinas himself. Some of
his works still remain in manuscript unpublished and as many as seventy
others have been lost. His printed works fill 38 quarto volumes and deal
with all branches of learning. Among his works are Summa theologie,
De unitate intellectus contra Averren, De vegetabilibus,
and Summa de creaturis.
He stands out in particular for his recognition of the autonomy
of human reason in its own sphere, of the validity of knowledge gained from
sensory experience, and of the value of Aristotle's philosophy in systematizing
theology. Aquinas perfected the synthesis now known as the Scholastic method.
At the time of his scientific investigations, the field was
almost exclusively in the hands of the Arabian philosophers--inheritors of
the work of Avicenna and Averroes--who had drawn a great part of their errors
from faulty interpretation of Aristotle. Since Aristotle, who must be regarded
as the greatest comprehensive genius of any age, no other had written on
the subject (as far as known), until Albert the Great.
During the intervening millennia between Aristotle and Albert,
there had been a void; after his time three hundred years passed before
botany was taken seriously. Albert commenced by making a catalogue of all
the trees, plants, and herbs known in his own time. His minute observations
on their forms and variations show an exquisite sense of their floral beauty,
which he attributed to God. He was acquainted with the sleep of plants,
with the periodic opening and closing of flowers, with the diminution of
sap during evaporation from the cuticle of the leaf, and with the influence
of the distribution of bundles of vessels on the foliar indentations. And
this is only the beginning of his observations.
In addition to botany, he wrote
in similar detail on astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, metaphysics,
ethics, scripture, geography, geology (one of his treatises proved the earth
to be spherical), logic, mathematics, theology, and meteorology; he made
maps and charts and experimented with plants; he studied chemical reactions;
designed instruments to help with navigation; and he made detailed studies
of birds and animals. His brilliance and erudition caused him to be called
the "Universal Doctor" by his contemporaries.
Albert's admiration for Arabic learning and culture caused
suspicion in some quarters. His and Thomas Aquinas's adaptation of Aristotelian
principles to systematic theology and their attempts to reconcile Aristotelianism
to Christianity caused bitter opposition among many of their fellow theologians.
Conservatives condemned these dangerous innovations as being tainted with
heresy since they came from pagan Greek, Islamic, and Jewish thinkers.
Saint Albert knew that studying the minute beauty and perfection
of creation gives us reason to glorify God. The universe is full of mystery;
the intellect of man has only touched its outer fringe. Had the students
of natural science proceeded along the lines Albert had laid down, the wrong
road taken for three centuries might have been avoided.
In the modern mechanistic view, God is excluded, but Albert
saw the whole universe as the work of God's hand. I've stressed Albert's erudition,
but his whole life was absorbed in God; the Master of the Universe developed
in him a greatest also of soul. He found God everywhere and in all things
and always saw some good in others and in their books. His work was to sift
out the good and to reserve it for Christ.
True greatness of soul is not content with merely observing
the good, but passes on its revelation to others, thus revealing the noble
disposition towards magnanimity. His task was to demonstrate the harmony between
natural truth and divine revelation and to give this abundantly to others.
Saint Albert was canonized by being enrolled among the doctors
of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931. He was also named patron saint of
students of the natural sciences, for he had, said the pope, 'that rare and
divine gift, scientific instinct, in the highest degree...; he is exactly
the saint whose example ought to inspire the present age' (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Delaney, Dorcy, Encyclopedia, Murray, White, Wilms).
Faith and Science
The opposition between science and faith is only apparent.
It originates either in the error of scientists who forward unprovable hypotheses
as undoubted facts--the theory of evolution, for instance--or in the mistakes
of theologians who would give their private, false opinions as gospel truths.
If both would remain within the confines of their own science, no opposition
would be possible.
Saint Albert insisted that 'purely
from reason no one can attain to knowledge of the Trinity, the Incarnation
of Jesus and the Resurrection.'
But, in fact reason and faith are helpful to each other. Reason
gives faith a solid foundation, so that we are not asked to give blind assent
to truths we cannot know. It also furnishes us with strong extrinsic proof
of the contents of divine revelation. Faith, on the other hand, "furnishes
facts to the other sciences," Cardinal Newman says, "which these sciences,
left to themselves, would never reach, and it invalidates apparent facts,
which left to themselves, they would imagine."
Science deals only with secondary causes; when it questions
why things happen it ceases to be science and becomes philosophy, but religion
interests itself with the Primary Cause of all things.
We are surrounded by the mystery of the universe; it is in
no way peculiar to religion. Science may make continual progress and tell
us of countless new and marvelous things, but the why and the wherefore
of them are altogether beyond its scope. There are mysteries in God's world,
both of nature and of grace.
The First Vatican Council teaches us, "The Church therefore,
far from hindering the pursuit of the arts and sciences, fosters and promotes
them in many ways. Nor does she prevent sciences, each in its own sphere,
from making use of their own principles and methods. Yet, while acknowledging
the freedom due to them, she tries to preserve them from falling into error
contrary to divine doctrine, and from overstepping their own boundaries
and throwing into confusion matters that belong to the domain of faith"
(Decree 16.12.41).
Saint Albert is represented in art as a Dominican with a doctor's
cap and a book. Sometimes he is shown (1) lecturing from a pulpit; (2) with
Saint Thomas Aquinas; or (3) as a Dominican bishop with pen and book (Roeder).
Patron of all natural sciences, scientists, and students of science (Roeder).
St. Albert the Great
(1206-1280) Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican
who influenced decisively the stance of the Church toward Aristotelian philosophy
brought to Europe by the spread of Islam. Students of philosophy know him
as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert’s attempt to understand Aristotle’s
writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis
of Greek wisdom and Christian theology.
Albert deserves recognition on his own merits as a curious,
honest and diligent scholar.
He was the eldest son of a
powerful and wealthy German lord of military rank. He was educated in the
liberal arts. Despite fierce family opposition, he entered the Dominican
novitiate. His boundless interests prompted him to write a compendium
of all knowledge: natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy,
ethics, economics, politics and metaphysics. His explanation of learning
took 20 years to complete.
"Our intention," he said, "is to make all the aforesaid parts
of knowledge intelligible to the Latins."
He achieved his goal while serving
as an educator at Paris and Cologne, as Dominican provincial and even as
bishop of Regensburg for a time. He defended the mendicant orders and preached
the Crusade in Germany and Bohemia.
Albert, a Doctor of the Church,
is the patron of scientists and philosophers.
Comment: An information
glut faces us Christians today in all branches of learning. One needs only
to read current Catholic periodicals to experience the varied reactions
to the findings of the social sciences, for example, in regard to Christian
institutions, Christian life-styles and Christian theology. Ultimately, in
canonizing Albert, the Church seems to point to his openness to truth, wherever
it may be found, as his claim to holiness. His characteristic curiosity prompted
Albert to mine deeply for wisdom within a philosophy his Church warmed to
with great difficulty.
Quote: "There are some who desire knowledge merely for
its own sake; and that is shameful curiosity. And there are others who desire
to know, in order that they may themselves be known; and that is vanity,
disgraceful too. Others again desire knowledge in order to acquire money
or preferment by it; that too is a discreditable quest. But there are also
some who desire knowledge, that they may build up the souls of others with
it; and that is charity. Others, again, desire it that they may themselves
be built up thereby; and that is prudence. Of all these types, only the last
two put knowledge to the right use" (St. Bernard, Sermon on the Canticle
of Canticles).
|
1794 Venerable Paisius
Velichkovsky archimandrite Neamts Monastery spent last 15 years of his life
translating writings of the Holy Fathers organized community according to
Typikon (Rule) of Mt Athos gathered a thousand monks in the monastery, instructing
them in the unceasing prayer of the heart holy relics of St Paisius were
uncovered in 1846, 1853, 1861 and 1872, and were found to be incorrupt.
Saint Paisius Velichkovsky was born in Poltava in Little Russia
on December 21, 1722, and was the eleventh of twelve children. His father
John was a priest, who named him Peter at his Baptism, in honor of St Peter
the Metropolitan of Moscow, on whose Feast he was born.
After the children's father died, their mother Irene raised
them in piety. Peter was sent to study at the Moghila Academy in Kiev in 1735.
After four years, Peter decided to leave the world and become a monk. At
the age of seventeen, he went in search of a monastery and a good spiritual
Father. For seven years Peter visited various monasteries, including the
Kiev Caves Lavra, but he did not feel drawn to any of the monasteries of
Ukraine.
After being made a rassophore monk (one blessed to wear the
rasson, but not yet tonsured "into the mantle") at the St Nicholas Medvedevsky
Monastery with the name Platon, he found that there was no experienced Elder
there who could teach him obedience or give him spiritual direction. Not wishing
to begin his monastic life without such guidance, he left the monastery a
week after his tonsure with the blessing of his Elder.
At first, he went to Kiev, where he happened to meet his sister-in-law,
the widow of his older brother Archpriest John. She informed him of his mother's
sorrow when he left Kiev, and her mind seemed to be affected by her grief.
Then one day an angel appeared to her and told her that instead of loving
the Creator with her whole heart and soul, she loved His creation (her son)
more. Because of this excessive love, the angel went on, she was thinking
of starving herself to death, which would result in her eternal condemnation.
The angel said that by God's grace, her son would become a monk, and that
she should also renounce the world and become a nun. After this, she became
calm and accepted God's will. She entered a convent and was tonsured with
the name Juliana. After about ten years, she departed to the Lord.
While at Kiev, Platon met two monks from Romania who were about
to return to their country. After crossing the border into Moldavia, they
came to Vlachia and the Skete of St Nicholas, which is called Treisteny,
around 1745. The Elder of the Skete, Hieroschemamonk Michael, was away on
business in Ukraine, so Platon and his companions were welcomed by the Superior,
Fr Demetrius. Platon was placed under a general obedience and given a cell
near the Skete, from which the church was visible.
As he was sleeping one night,
the semantron was sounded calling the monks to Sunday Matins, but Platon
did not hear it. He woke up and ran to the church, only to find that the
Gospel had already been read, and the Canon was being sung. In his grief
and shame, he did not enter the church, but returned to his cell and wept
bitter tears. After the Liturgy, when it was time for the meal, the Superior
and the Elder were surprised that Platon had not been seen at the services.
The Elder ordered that the meal be delayed while he sent a Fr Athanasius
to find out what had happened to Platon. Fr Athanasius found him and asked
why he was weeping. With difficulty, Platon was able to tell him the cause
of his sorrow. Fr Athanasius tried to console him and urged him to come
to the Skete, where the others were waiting for him. Finally, he was persuaded
to go.
Seeing the brethren at table but not eating, Platon fell down
before them weeping and asking forgiveness. The Elder and the Superior lifted
him up and heard from Fr Athanasius the reason for his sorrow. The Elder
told Platon not to grieve so over something that had happened involuntarily,
and did his best to console him. From that time, however, the saint would
not sleep lying down in bed, but sitting up on a bench.
One day the Elder Onuphrius of Kyrkoul visited the Skete and
spoke about his Skete at Kyrkoul. Platon long to see Kyrkoul, and so he returned
there with Fr Onuphrius. He remained there for a time, conversing with Fr
Onuphrius about overcoming the passions, the struggle with demons, unceasing
prayer, and other soul-profiting topics. This seed fell on good ground, later
bearing spiritual fruit a hundredfold.
The time came when Platon was filled with a longing to visit
Mount Athos. He asked the brethren of the Skete, and those of other Sketes,
for their forgiveness and blessing for the journey. He also thanked them for
their kindness and their paternal instruction. They blessed him and let him
go in peace. At that time he was just twenty-four years old.
Platon went to Mount Athos in 1746, arriving at the Great Lavra
on July 4, the eve of the Feast of St Athanasius of Athos. His traveling
companion, Hieromonk Tryphon fell ill and died after four days. Platon would
have died from the same illness, if not for the care of the Russian monks.
He recovered and lived in solitude in a cell called Kaparis near the Pantokrator
Monastery. He went around visiting the ascetics and solitaries, looking for
a spiritual Father, but was unable to find anyone suitable.
In 1750 St Basil of Poiana Marului
(April 15) visited the Holy Mountain and spent some time with Platon, who
asked him for monastic tonsure. Elder Basil granted his request, giving
him the name Paisius. Then Fr Basil returned to his Skete at Vlachia. About
three months later, a young monk named Bessarion came to the Holy Mountain
from Vlachia. He went around to the monasteries searching for an instructor,
but did not find one. He also came to Fr Paisius and asked him to tell him
something about saving his soul. Fr Paisius sighed and told him that he
himself had been looking for an instructor without success. Yet, feeling
compassion for Fr Bessarion, he talked to him a little about the qualifications
necessary for a true instructor, and about the Jesus Prayer. After hearing
him, Fr Bessarion said, "What more do I seek?" He fell down at the feet of
Fr Paisius, entreating him to be his Elder. Fr Paisius did not want to be
anyone's Elder, wishing instead to be under authority himself. Fr Bessarion
remained for three days weeping until Fr Paisius agreed to accept him as
a friend, and not as a disciple. For about four years they lived together
fulfilling God's commandments, cutting off their own will and obeying one
another as equals.
Other disciples began to join them, and their number continued
to increase. Since they needed a priest and a confessor, they begged Fr
Paisius to accept ordination. He did not want to hear of this, and repeatedly
refused to consent. They did not give up, however. They asked him how he
could expect to teach the brethren obedience and cutting off their own will,
when he disobeyed the tearful entreaties of those who wanted him to accept.
Finally, he said, "May the will of God be done."
In 1754 Fr Paisius was ordained to the holy priesthood and
was given the Skete of the Prophet Elias, where he began to accept even
more disciples. St Paisius remained on Mt Athos for a total of seventeen
years, copying Greek patristic books and translating them into Slavonic.
In 1763 Fr Paisius went to Moldavia with sixty-four disciples,
and was given the Dragomirna Monastery near the city of Sochava and on the
border between Bukovina and Moldavia. Here he remained for twelve years,
and the number of monks increased to three hundred and fifty. His friend
Hieromonk Alexius came to visit him from Vlachia, and Fr Paisius asked him
to tonsure him into the Schema. Fr Alexius did so, but without changing his
name. While at Dragomirna, Fr Paisius corrected the Slavonic translations
of patristic books by comparing them to the Greek manuscripts he had copied
on Mt Athos.
The Russo-Turkish war broke
out in 1768, and Moldavia and Vlachia saw many battles. Dragomirna and the
forests around it became filled with refugees from the villages near the
battlegrounds. Another catastrophe appeared in 1771 with the outbreak of
plague. When Dragomirna and Bukovina came under the control of Austrian Catholics,
St Paisius and his flock fled to Moldavia. In October of 1775, he went to
Secu ("Beheading") Monastery, which was dedicated to St John the Baptist,
with many of his monks.
Secul was too small for the number of brethren, who were crowded
with three to five monks in a cell. In the spring, more brethren were due
to arrive from Dragomirna, so new cells had to be built. After three years
of labor one hundred cells were completed, and everyone had a place. Still,
the numbers increased and they had to look for a larger monastery.
Prince Constantine Muruz wrote to the Elder saying that there
was no larger monastery than Neamts, about two hours from Secul. On August
14, 1779, St Paisius moved to Neamts Monastery where he spent the last fifteen
years of his life translating the writings of the Holy Fathers. He organized
the community according to the Typikon (Rule) of Mt Athos. He gathered about
a thousand monks in the monastery, instructing them in the unceasing prayer
of the heart.
Archbishop Ambrose visited St Paisius at Neamts in 1790, staying
for two days to converse with the Elder. During the Sunday Liturgy, he raised
St Paisius to the rank of Archimandrite. He remained two more days, then
departed after blessing everyone.
St Paisius fell asleep in the Lord on November 15, 1794 at
the age of seventy-two. It is possible that God revealed the date of his
death to him beforehand, for he stopped translating books. He only reviewed
and corrected what had already been translated.
He was ill for four days, but felt well enough to attend the
Liturgy on Sunday. After the service, he asked everyone to come and receive
his blessing. He said farewell to them all, then returned to his cell and
would not receive anyone. A few days later, on November 15, he received the
Holy Mysteries again and surrendered his soul to God. His funeral was conducted
by Bishop Benjamin of Tuma, and was attended by multitudes of priests, monks,
laymen, nobles and ordinary people.
The holy relics of St Paisius were uncovered in 1846, 1853,
1861 and 1872, and were found to be incorrupt.
St Paisius has had an enormous
influence, not only in Romania, but throughout the Orthodox world. His disciples
traveled to Russia, sparking the spiritual revival of the nineteenth century
with Slavonic translations of the PHILOKALIA and the tradition of eldership
which they had learned from St Paisius. This influence has been felt even
in America through St Herman of Alaska (December 13). St Herman was taught
by Elders whose spiritual formation was guided by St Paisius. He first met
Fr Nazarius, who became his Elder at Valaam, at Sarov, then followed him
to Sanaxar when St Theodore (February 19) was their igumen.
One of the books that St Herman brought with him to America
was the Slavonic PHILOKALIA, printed in 1794. He absorbed the spiritual wisdom
that it contained, and imparted it to others.
|
Mary Mother of GOD 15
Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary 
Saints of this Day November
15 Décimo séptimo Kaléndas Decémbris 
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s
1969 
Benedict XVI met with
Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, the
highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered
the martyrs of the Armenian Church and
the Armenian genocide, without explicitly
mentioning it, and denounced the persecution
of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
May 26 1991 
The Holy Martyrs and Confessors Gurias, Samonas and Habibus: during the
persecution against Christians under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and
Maximian (305-311). The two friends Gurias and Samonas, preachers of the Word
of God, were arrested in the city of Edessa.
After the death of the saints, numerous miracles were wrought
by them for those who entreated their help with faith and love. Once, a
certain Gothic soldier, sent to serve at Edessa, took the pious virgin Euphemia
as his wife. Before this the barbarian vowed to her mother Sophia at the
graves of the Martyrs Gurias, Samonas and Habibus that he would do his spouse
no harm, and would never insult her, but would always love and cherish her.
