The Spirituality and Miracles of St. Clare of Assisi

St. Albert the Great

St. Albert the Great, a Doctor of the Church, and brilliant scientist, was born in Germany in the early 1200’s. He was educated at the University of Padua, a scientific center, and joined the Dominicans as a young man. He taught theology at several schools, including the University of Paris, where he also earned his doctorate. He was teacher, guide, and mentor to St. Thomas Aquinas and became a defender of Thomas’s writings.

Albert had a reputation for possessing a broad range of knowledge and expertise in several areas of learning; hence, he was known as "Albert the Great". In addition to theology and biblical studies, he excelled in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, metaphysics, and mathematics. It was in Cologne that he became a famous scientist. There, he conducted experiments in chemistry and physics in his laboratory and built up a collection of plants, insects, and chemical compounds that gave substance to his reputation.

Albert died at the age of seventy-three among his religious brothers in Cologne on November 15. On December 16, 1941, near the beginning of the nuclear age, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Saint Albert the Great to be the Patron of all Students and Researchers of the Natural Sciences.

A Meditation on the Precious Blood of Jesus from the Writings of St. Albert the Great

I adore You, O Precious Blood of Jesus, flower of creation, fruit of virginity, ineffable instrument of the Holy Spirit, and I rejoice at the thought that You came from the drop of virginal blood on which eternal Love impressed its movement; You were assumed by the Word and deified in His person. I am overcome with emotion when I think of Your passing from the Blessed Virgin's heart into the heart of the Word, and, being vivified by the breath of the Divinity, becoming adorable because You became the Blood of God.

I adore You enclosed in the veins of Jesus, preserved in His humanity like the manna in the golden urn, the memorial of the eternal Redemption, which He accomplished during the days of His earthly life. I adore You, Blood of the new, eternal Testament, flowing from the veins of Jesus in Gethsemane, from the flesh torn by scourges in the Praetorium, from His pierced hands and feet and from His opened side on Golgotha. I adore You in the Sacraments, in the Eucharist, where I know You are substantially present....

I place my trust in You, O adorable Blood, our Redemption, our regeneration. Fall, drop by drop, into the hearts that have wandered from You and soften their hardness.

O adorable Blood of Jesus, wash our stains, save us from the anger of the avenging angel. Irrigate the Church; make her fruitful with Apostles and miracle-workers, enrich her with souls that are holy, pure and radiant with divine beauty.