February 26, 2023 - "Saint Albert the Great"

As we continue our journey through the various Doctors of the Church, we come to the first of three members of the Dominican Order who have been named Doctors of the Church:  Saint Albert the Great (c. 1200-1285).  Albert was born of a well-to-do family in Lauingen in the diocese of Augsburg.  While he was a student in Padua in the 1220s, he joined the Dominicans because he was inspired by the preaching of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Dominic’s successor as master general of the new order.  The new friar was sent back to Germany about 1230, first to Cologne to study theology and then to Hildesheim and Freiburg, where he served as lector. During this time, he published the first of his many writings, the treatise On the Nature of the Good. About 1240 Albert went on to Paris where he was promoted to Master of Theology in 1245.  During this period, he completed the required Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, as well as a number of other lengthy works.  Albert also began to teach and comment on the writings of Aristotle and the body of treatises ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the supposed pupil of St. Paul.  Though neither Aristotle nor the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite were strangers to academic world of thirteenth century, Albert’s role as an interpreter of their thought was as important as any of the other contributions to the history of philosophy and theology.
 
In 1248 Albert returned to Cologne to head the new Dominican general house of theology.  Scholars who have studied this period in Albert’s life have seen this foundation and Albert’s innovative teaching as the beginning of an important tradition in German philosophy, theology, and mysticism.  A young Italian friar, Thomas Aquinas, who had begun his studies with Albert in Paris, followed his teacher to Cologne.  Thomas absorbed Albert’s knowledge of Aristotle, Dionysius, and much else.  Albert continued his writing even after his election as provincial of the vast German province of the order.  In 1258 he was back in Cologne teaching. In 1259 he was a member of the important commission which reorganized the studies of the Dominicans to make sure that rigorous training was mandated, both in philosophy and theology.  In 1260, the pope unexpectedly named him bishop of Regensburg.  Although both he and the order resisted, the pope would not take No for an answer.  Albert had no choice but to acquiesce.  As bishop, Albert tried to provide an example of poverty and spirituality, but the politics involved in the episcopal office proved to be very unwelcome.  His resignation was accepted in 1262.  For the next few years Albert traveled throughout Italy and Germany where he performed various functions for the papacy and the order.  Finally in 1269 he returned to Cologne where he took up teaching once again.  In 1274 he attended the Second Council of Lyons.  In 1277 he returned to Paris to defend the reputation of his deceased student, Thomas Aquinas, during the attacks against him.  Around the same time, he completed his Summa of Theology.  At some stage before his death Albert stopped teaching.  Some have thought this was because he began to suffer from memory loss.  Others have thought that Albert just wanted some peace and quiet—time to devote to increased prayer--after having lived such a busy life.

The Dominican chronicler Henry of Herford tells this story about Albert during his last years. “He used to retire often to a solitary place to pray and chant, considering himself as already dead.  When he was visited by the archbishop of Cologne, the recluse refused to open the door of his cell, but responded quite simply: “Albert is not here; he’s gone.” Albert died in Cologne and is buried in the crypt of the Dominican church there.
 
According to Étienne Gilson, the twentieth-century historian of Christian philosophy, Albert was the first scholastic teacher to recognize the great difference between patristic thought and the new philosophical science made available by translations from Greek and Arabic and thus to insist that theology was a science distinct from philosophy.  This meant that the fathers did not enjoy the same kind of authority in medicine, science, and philosophy than they did in theology. In comparison with the work of his younger contemporaries, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, Albert’s theology has rightly been judged less systematic, more occasional, and at times eclectic.  His genius was in the diversity of his interests and incredible energy with which he pursued so many forms of knowledge.
 
Until next week
Fr. John