Through the trials and tempests of his century, Albert became a skilful administrator and fair arbitrator, a thoughtful scholar, a prolific writer, and a wise teacher.

The Greatest of the Germans

by Denis Kitzinger

His contemporaries described him as “the wonder and miracle of his age.”  Indeed, it seems reasonable to ask whether the age of St. Albert the Great (1195-1280) would be remembered as such an eminent period of Christian culture had not “the light of Germany” (St. Peter Canisius) illuminated the minds and hearts of so many of his fellow Christians, clerics and laity alike.

Contrary to popular romantic imagination, the thirteenth century was neither a flawless century of Christian unity nor an unequivocal climax of Christendom. 

True, the first stone of that monument of faith, Cologne’s Gothic cathedral, was laid in 1250, and Europe’s great universities then began their storied pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. Yet the signs of future conflict and disunity were also discernable. 

At the battle of Bouvines (1214), a Holy Roman Emperor for the first time lost a major battle to one of Christendom’s kings, when Otto IV was defeated by Philip Augustus of France. 

Critical conflicts also took place in the relation between Church and state, clergy and people—one thinks of the clash between pope Innocent IV and emperor Frederick II—as well as in the world of thought, where the introduction of Aristotelian philosophy by way of Arab sources upset the established praxis of theology and philosophy. 

Faced with these and similar challenges, St. Albert fought to sustain Christian civilization with humility and might, zeal and patience—even though contemporary sources suggest that this last virtue was itself a struggle for the high-spirited Swabian nobleman. Through the trials and tempests of his century, Albert became a skilful administrator and fair arbitrator, a thoughtful scholar, a prolific writer, and a wise teacher.

..................

Read more: www.crisismagazine.com