A mind used well then laid to waste

Albert’s father was well off and well connected, so Albert could go to the best schools, which he did: majoring (more or less) in liberal arts. While he was away at university, however, he happened to listen to a powerful preacher who was spending a little time in town. It changed Albert’s life, at least partly: he would stay in school, but he would soon be begging in the streets as well, renouncing his inheritance in imitation of Christ’s poverty.

Albert’s mind was powerful and wide-ranging. He not only became an authoritative theologian and philosopher, but eventually one of the most famous scientists in the world. He also mentored a young man who would become one of the most famous theologians and philosophers of all time. For a time, Albert was forced to become the bishop of a diocese, but he eventually returned to the world of academia in which he so excelled.

Then, toward the end of his life, having given up everything to follow Christ, Albert lost his most treasured possession. Although a clinical diagnosis would not be possible, Alzheimer’s disease (or something very much like it) took away Albert’s incredible intellect.

Yet nothing could take away what this mighty but humble friar had accomplished, and history would remember him well, even after he could remember nothing, as “Albert the Great.”

St. Albert the Great, bishop and doctor of the Church, mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas, died on this very day in 1280. He was beatified in 1622 and canonized in 1931.