Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Albert was born about 1200 at Lauingen in Swabia and joined the Dominicans in Padua in 1223. He taught at Cologne and Paris; among his students was Thomas Aquinas, whom, a story says, fellow students called “the dumb ox”, until Albert said that this ox's bellowing would be heard throughout the world. He wrote on nearly every subject then known, commenting on Aristotle and describing plants, animals and minerals from his own observation. In 1260 he became bishop of Regensburg but resigned after two years and returned to teaching. His early biographers say that in 1277, already old, he travelled to Paris to defend the teaching of the dead Thomas. He died in Cologne on 15 November 1280, was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931, and is the patron of natural scientists.