Gregor mendel, priest and scientist « catholic insight

Mendel, Mendelism. July 22, , at Heinzendorf near Odrau, in Austrian Silesia ; d. January 6, , at the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas, Brunn. The debt was afterwards repaid, and more than repaid, by Mendel. After a period of study at the school of Leipnik, Mendel distinguished himself so much that his parents made a great effort and sent him to the gymnasium at Troppau, and subsequently, for a year, to Olmiitz.

At the former place one of his teachers was an Augustinian, and, whether post or propter hoc, at the end of his period of study at the gymnasium Mendel applied to be admitted as a novice in the Abbey of St. When this course terminated, in , he returned to his abbey, and was appointed a teacher, principally of physics, in the Realschule.

Gregor Mendel of Austria () was.

He continued in this position for fifteen years and appears to have been genuinely devoted to teaching and to have gained the reputation of being extraordinarily successful in interesting his pupils in their work. In he was obliged to relinquish his educational labors on assuming the position of abbot of his monastery, to which office he was then elected.

When appointed to this important post, Mendel, already much engrossed with his biological experiments, hoped that he might have more time for his researches than was possible in the midst of his labors at the Realschule. But this was not to be.

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The jurisdiction and privileges of the abbey are somewhat extensive, and its abbot must, in ordinary times, find himself with plenty of occupation. Mendel, however, in addition to the multiplicity of his duties as abbot, became involved in a lengthy controversy with the Government which absorbed his attention and embittered the last years of his life.

The Government had imposed special taxes on religious houses, and these Mendel refused to pay, alleging that, as all citizens were, or should be, equal in the eye of the law, it was unjust to ask one kind of institution to pay a tax from which another kind was free.