It falls to few men to be referenced both as a brother of deeply faithful Christians in a text such as Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and as one of the early influences on Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s ground-breaking horror novel of the early 19th century.
But such was the diverse and eclectic range of the German Saint Albertus Magnus’ accomplishments in the 13th century that his enlightening shadow has fallen across much of Western spiritual and intellectual culture ever since.
Some saints are recognised for evangelical adventure; they boldly go where no saint has gone before, such as St Francis Xavier to Japan, and St Thomas, who ‘doubted’ his way as far as India. Others self-sacrifice for the Lord as martyrs – their number is legion.
INTELLECTUAL ENTHUSIASM
Some, such as Albertus Magnus, live in their mind and expand the realm of human thought in the direction of heaven, their intellectual enthusiasm sweeping up humankind with them. Albert The Great believed that both spiritual and scientific wonder could together lift the human soul aloft: he studied both Heaven and the heavens.
If he had only taken up the administrative roles assigned to him in the Church, he would be remembered as a faithful, effective servant of Christ: regional Dominican provincial; bishop of Regensburg; chair of Theology at the University of Paris.
But Albert felt commissioned by the Holy Spirit to encompass and pass on all that philosophy and science could impart in his time; he translated and added commentary to all the works of that great pagan student of nature, Aristotle, supplied from the Islamic East. At the same time, he pondered and promoted neo-Platonic thought, garnering from the ancient world all that early recorded human wisdom could attain.
Not that Albert was devoted to, or detoured by, the ancient Greek philosophies and sciences; his motive was Biblical:
‘The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.’ (Psalm 19: 1)
Albert contributed to our understanding of botany, zoology, geography, geology, astronomy, chemistry, physiology and phrenology, writing pioneering studies such as – to take one example from so many – De Mineralibus, one of the earliest attempts to categorise the earth’s mineral resources.
LEADING SCIENTIFIC MIND
Yet this leading scientific mind of his age did not study the natural world as an end in itself; he did not cling to the things of this earth. In ‘Union with God’ (Chapter 7), he was adamant:
‘Banish, therefore, from thy heart the distractions of earth and turn thine eyes to spiritual joys, that thou mayest learn at last to repose in the light of the contemplation of God.’
Such was Albert’s pre-eminence that others sought to enrich themselves by publishing their own works using his name – deep-fakes and forgeries are nothing new. The upshot of this is that he became associated with experiments in alchemy and was even said to have constructed a brass-head automaton which could answer any question put to it.
Such tales add to the mystique of the man, but Albert’s authentic holy contribution was his complete faith that reason and revelation were harmonious in God’s plan.
In an age of scholasticism (which he himself helped to build), he was akin to Marlowe’s fictional Dr Faustus in his thirst to investigate all the branches of knowledge. Where the two men differed, however, was that, whereas Faustus famously grew blasé about all that he had studied, to the point of despair, and so sold himself to the Devil, St Albert the Great did the opposite.
St Albert gave his heart, soul and mind to God; his reward was the limitless joy of divine discovery.
Peter Fleming is a writer and teacher. He doesn’t own a mobile phone and thinks ‘facebook’ is something you should do after taking one off the shelf to read.
SAINT ALBERTUS MAGNUS
c. 1200–1280
Feast day: 15 November
Patron saint: Those who cultivate the natural sciences, medical technicians, philosophers and scientists.