It is rare when a pupil outshines the teacher, but that is the case with today’s saint. However, St. Albert the Great was the teacher and his pupil was St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Albert was a German Dominican. The Dominicans were great preachers and great scholars and St. Albert was among the greatest. He founded the University of Cologne in German, was made bishop of Regensburg, taught in universities, wrote prolifically (His collected works number thirty-eight volumes!), and had an encyclopedic knowledge on numerous topics, including the natural sciences. When he was canonized he was named the patron saint of natural scientists.
There is much fuss and commotion now-a-days about the supposed incompatibility of science and faith. Some say that science can explain everything. Some say that faith doesn’t need science. Both statements are wrong. The natural sciences are human efforts to discover the truths of the universe, which was made by God. Faith does not tell us the details of how the universe works, it tells us that God has a plan for us and that the created universe is a part of that plan. Science is a gift from God that helps us work out the amazing wonder of the universe. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, botany, and more are awe-inspiring disciplines both in themselves and what they can tell us of the awe-inspiring creation of God!
St. Albert the Great knew the complementarity of science and faith. He wrote, “The aim of natural philosophy (science) is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature.” He knew that the ultimate cause of nature was God. His great student, St. Thomas developed that in his understanding of God as the “uncaused cause” of all that is.
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