St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Feast
Albert was born at Lauingen in Swabia at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th. He completed his studies at Padua in 1223, and there received the habit of the Order from Blessed Jordan of Saxony.
From 1242 to 1248 he taught in Paris, where among all his students he had Thomas Aquinas as his most diligent disciple. To students gathered in Paris from foreign lands, Brother Albert taught with a universal spirit a new science, namely Aristotelian physics according to Jewish and Arab interpretation.
In 1248 he directed the newly established studium generale at Cologne, and Thomas followed him there. Afterward he held various offices and was elected provincial of Teutonia from 1254 to 1257. Together with the Franciscan Bonaventure, he vigorously defended the right of the mendicant Orders to teach in the universities.
Consecrated bishop of Regensburg in 1260, he resigned the office after two years, considering himself unworthy. Returning again to study, he traveled to Würzburg, Strasbourg and Cologne.
He wonderfully joined the wisdom of the saints with human knowledge. He was exceptionally renowned for his writings and teaching, but even more renowned for integrity of life and pastoral charity. He also shone with outstanding devotion to the Sacrament of the Eucharist and to the Virgin Mother of God, who, according to tradition, strengthened him to persevere in his holy purpose.
He left behind remarkable works of sacred doctrine and of other sciences, worthy of the titles “Great” and “Universal Doctor.” He died on Nov. 15, 1280, at Cologne. Pius II numbered Albert among the most holy doctors of the Church in 1459. Pius XI declared him a saint on Dec. 16, 1931, and Pius XII gave him as patron to students and practitioners of the natural sciences.
Proprium Officiorum Ordinis Praedicatorum ad Normam Decretorum Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Vincentii Couesnongle iussu editum, Editio typica, Sanctae Sabinae, Romae 1982.
