Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor

One of the greatest minds in the history of the Church was born in the Holy Roman Empire around the turn of the thirteenth century in the town of Lauingen, modern-day Germany. Different sources date his birth in various years between 1193 and 1206. He was known as Albert of Lauingen when born, but even before his death he was often referred to as Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus).

Albert was born into a noble family, with some accounts identifying his father as a count. Because of his noble status, he enjoyed the blessing of an excellent education, either at home from private tutors or in a neighboring school. At some point after completing his elementary studies, he was sent to the University of Padua to study the liberal arts and was also introduced to the philosophy of Aristotle that would become foundational for his later writings. Around 1223, Albert joined the Dominican order, possibly as a result of an apparition in which the Blessed Virgin Mary instructed him to do so. He continued his studies in important schools in Padua, Paris, and Cologne to complete his education in philosophy and theology.

Around the time that Brother Albert finished his studies, he was ordained to the sacred priesthood and was assigned to various teaching posts throughout Europe, most notably in Cologne for several years. Around 1245, Father Albert earned the distinction of “Master of  Theology” from the prestigious Saint-Jacques at the University of Paris, where he also was given the Chair of Theology.

It is difficult to know what was taking place within the mind and soul of Father Albert during these first twenty-two years as a Dominican, but it is clear from the abundant good fruit borne from his life that he was intimately united to God. Later biographers describe him as having a voracious appetite for sacred knowledge, with the heavens opening up upon him, filling his mind with divine light. Unique to his thought was the incorporation of Aristotle’s philosophical principles in logic and metaphysics with theology. Before Father Albert, no one had thoroughly incorporated the two strains of thought. This was partly due to the fact that all of Aristotle’s works had only recently been translated into Latin from ancient Greek.

Father Albert was not only a philosopher and theologian, he was a walking encyclopedia who seemed to have mastered all subjects. The compilation of his writings fills thirty-nine encyclopedic volumes and covers a multitude of topics, including logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, politics, economics, friendship, and love. One might ask what most of these have to do with theology. Father Albert would reply that they all have to do with theology because they all come from God and are all in perfect harmony with each other. Today some suggest that science and faith contradict each other. Father Albert would be the first to challenge that belief and would thoroughly defend his position. The simple answer is that if God is the source of all the natural sciences, logic, revelation, law, and order, and all that is true, then God cannot contradict Himself. He cannot create the natural sciences with one truth and then reveal in theology another truth. What is true is that which is in the mind of God, no matter the subject, and that which is in the mind of God is perfectly harmonious. All creation reveals and glorifies God in its own perfect way!

Though Father Albert was one of the most prolific and profound writers in the Church, God also used him to help form a man who became the Church’s greatest theologian: Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor. Father Thomas Aquinas was about twenty-five years younger than Father Albert but died five years before him. It was in Paris that the twenty-year-old Father Thomas became Father Albert’s student. Their teacher-student bond grew into a profound mutual respect and friendship. In many ways, Father Albert laid the foundation for Father Thomas by helping him embrace and “Christianize” Aristotelian logic and metaphysics. Father Albert was the first of the Church’s theologians to write upon every aspect of Aristotle, and Father Thomas soaked it all up, later building upon it to produce what is arguably the most important theological work ever written: the Summa Theologiae (“Summary of Theology” or “Compendium of Theology”). 

Together, these men were among the greatest theologians to show that faith and reason are not exclusive of each other; rather, they are intimately interwoven and inseparable. When pure human reason is used to analyze the content of divine revelation (faith), the mind is able to extrapolate deeper truths and bring them to their logical conclusion, even to the highest degrees of abstraction. The bond and respect between Fathers Albert and Thomas was so deep that when Father Albert was transferred to Cologne in 1248, Father Thomas followed him.

In 1254, Father Albert was made the provincial superior of the Dominican Order, adding administrative duties to his academic pursuits. In 1260, Pope Alexander IV appointed him as the Bishop of Regensburg, where he remained for the next three years. During that time, though Bishop Albert was among the greatest minds in the Church, his humility won the hearts of his people, and he was able to bring healing to divisions that plagued that diocese. After Bishop Albert resigned his position, the pope employed him for diplomatic missions while Bishop Albert continued his academic pursuits.

Because Bishop Albert and Father Thomas Aquinas were groundbreakers in the use of Aristotelian logic and metaphysics, there were some who criticized them. In 1277, two years after Father Thomas died, the Bishop of Paris issued an edict condemning 219 theological propositions that were deduced from Aristotelian logic by various theologians, stating that God’s Almighty Power was so transcendent that the propositions violated God’s Omnipotence. Twenty of those 219 were from Father Thomas. Some stories state that despite his age (about seventy-seven), Bishop Albert traveled to Paris to personally defend his saintly student. In the end, both teacher and student became saints and Doctors of the Church, thus pointing to the true omnipotence of God.

Saint Albert the Great was a man with a mind on fire with the Holy Spirit. Mere human intellectual capacity could never achieve what he achieved. Some saints are filled with the fortitude necessary to die as martyrs, some are mystics whose lives reveal the the holiness of God, some are founders who build up the Church through new charisms and religious communities, and some, like Saints Albert and Thomas, receive the gift of intellect, infused with the highest degree of the virtues of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and prudence, by which they are able to leave the Church a solid theological foundation upon which it can continue to be built.

As we honor the “Great” Saint Albert, Doctor of the Church, who was designated as Universal Doctor because he mastered every subject, ponder the simple fact that, despite his having one of the greatest minds in the history of thought, his proficiency is but a drop of water in the ocean compared to the mind of God. This humble truth is something Saint Albert would have readily professed, yet it never stopped him from striving to become that one drop, given that it was one small way of comprehending and articulating what God has revealed to us. And that which comes from God, no matter how small in comparison to the Reality, has infinite value. Seek to imitate Saint Albert by renewing your commitment to the study of your faith so that your mind will experience but a drop of the grace given to this greatest of men.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-15—saint-albert-the-great-bishop-and-doctor/