Catholic clergy
The sacrament of holy orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishops, priests, and deacons, in decreasing order of rank, collectively comprising the clergy. In the phrase "holy orders", the word "holy" means "set apart for a sacre ...
throughout history who have made contributions to science. These churchmen-scientists include
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulat ...
,
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was ...
,
Georges Lemaître
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître ( ; ; 17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first to t ...
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through emp ...
,
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi (; also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much t ...
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...
,
Bernard Bolzano
Bernard Bolzano (, ; ; ; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Gonzal Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his li ...
,
Francesco Maria Grimaldi
Francesco Maria Grimaldi, SJ (2 April 1618 – 28 December 1663) was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician and physicist who taught at the Jesuit college in Bologna. He was born in Bologna to Paride Grimaldi and Anna Cattani.
Work
Between ...
in particular have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science. For example, the Jesuits have dedicated significant study to earthquakes, and
seismology
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
has been described as "the Jesuit science." The Jesuits have been described as "the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century." According to Jonathan Wright in his book ''God's Soldiers'', by the eighteenth century the Jesuits had "contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
's surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn's rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon affected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light."
Because there is a
List of lay Catholic scientists
Many Catholics have made significant contributions to the development of science and mathematics from the Middle Ages to today. These scientists include Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, André-Marie Ampère, Char ...
, this list does not include lay members of religious orders, such as (non-priest) monks and nuns, brothers and sisters, or anyone in 'minor orders' at such times that those were not considered clergy.
The clergy-scientists
A
*
José de Acosta
José de Acosta (1539 or 1540 in Medina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600 in Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America. His deductions regarding the ill effects of crossing over t ...
(1539–1600) – Jesuit missionary and naturalist who wrote one of the first detailed and realistic descriptions of the new world
* François d'Aguilon (1567–1617) – Belgian Jesuit mathematician, architect, and physicist, who worked on optics
* Lorenzo Albacete (1941–2014) – priest, physicist, and theologian
* Albert of Castile (c. 1460 – 1522) – Dominican priest and historian
* Albert of Saxony (philosopher) (c. 1320 – 1390) – German bishop known for his contributions to logic and physics; with Buridan he helped develop the theory that was a precursor to the modern theory of inertia
* Albertus Magnus (c. 1206 – 1280) – Dominican friar and Bishop of Regensburg who has been described as "one of the most famous precursors of modern science in the High Middle Ages." Patron saint of natural sciences; Works in physics, logic, metaphysics, biology, and psychology.
*
Giulio Alenio
Giulio Aleni ( la, Julius Alenius; 1582– 10 June 1649), in Chinese , was an Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar. He was born in Leno near Brescia in Italy, at the time part of the Republic of Venice, and died at Yanping in China. He beca ...
(1582–1649) – Jesuit
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
,
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
and
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
; was sent to the Far East as a
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
and adopted a Chinese name and customs; wrote 25 books, including a cosmography and a ''Life of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
'' in Chinese.
* José María Algué (1856–1930) – priest and meteorologist who invented the barocyclonometer
* José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez (1737–1799) – priest, scientist, historian, cartographer, and meteorologist who wrote more than thirty treatises on a variety of scientific subjects
* Bartholomeus Amicus (1562–1649) – Jesuit who wrote about include Aristotelian philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and the concept of vacuum and its relationship with God
* Stefano degli Angeli (1623–1697) – Jesuate (not to be confused with Jesuit), philosopher and mathematician, known for his work on the precursors of infinitesimal calculus
*
Pierre Ango
Pierre Ango (1640 in Rouen – 18 October 1694 in La Flèche) was a French Catholic priest and scientist.
He was a professor at the College of La Flèche. In 1682, he published parts of Ignace-Gaston Pardies, Pardies' work on optics in his book '' ...
(1640–1694) – Jesuit scientist who published a book on optics
* Francesco Castracane degli Antelminelli (1817–1899) – priest and botanist who was one of the first to introduce microphotography into the study of biology
* Giovanni Antonelli (1818–1872) – priest and astronomer who served as director of the Ximenian Observatory of Florence
* Nicolò Arrighetti (1709–1767) – Jesuit who wrote treatises on light, heat, and electricity
*
Mariano Artigas
Mariano Artigas (1938–2006) was a Spanish physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He wrote ''The Mind of the Universe: Understanding Science and Religion'' and fifteen other books on science and religion.
He was a member of the European Asso ...
(1938–2006) – Spanish physicist, philosopher and theologian
* Giuseppe Asclepi (1706–1776) – Jesuit astronomer and physician who served as director of the Collegio Romano observatory; the lunar crater Asclepi is named after him
*
Nicanor Austriaco
Nicanor Robles Austriaco, Jr. Order of Preachers, OP is a Filipino-American molecular biologist and Catholic priest. He is a professor of biology and professor of theology at Providence College, in Providence, Rhode Island, and a research fellow ...
– Dominican microbiologist, associate professor of biology and professor of theology at Providence College as well as chief researcher at the Austriaco Laboratory
B
*
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through emp ...
(c. 1214 – 1294) – Franciscan friar who made significant contributions to mathematics and optics and has been described as a forerunner of modern
scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientifi ...
*
Bernardino Baldi
Bernardino Baldi (5 June 1553 – 10 October 1617) was an Italian mathematician, poet, translator and priest.
Baldi descended from a noble family from Urbino, Marche, where he was born. He pursued his studies at Padua, and is said to have spoken ...
(1533–1617) – abbot, mathematician, and writer
* Eugenio Barsanti (1821–1864) – Piarist, possible inventor of the internal combustion engine
* Daniello Bartoli (1608–1685) – Bartoli and fellow Jesuit astronomer Niccolò Zucchi are credited as probably having been the first to see the equatorial belts on the planet Jupiter
* Joseph Bayma (1816–1892) – Jesuit known for work in stereochemistry and mathematics
*
Giovanni Battista Beccaria
Giovanni Battista Beccaria (; 3 October 1716 – 27 May 1781), Italian physicist, was born at Mondovì, and entered the religious Order of the Pious Schools or Piarists, in 1732, where he studied, and afterward taught, grammar and rhetoric. At th ...
(1716–1781) –
Piarist
The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools ( la, Ordo Clericorum Regularium pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the ...
, physicist, teacher of
Joseph-Louis Lagrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaLuigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani (, also ; ; la, Aloysius Galvanus; 9 September 1737 – 4 December 1798) was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, who studied animal electricity. In 1780, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs ...
and
Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic who was a pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and th ...
, correspondent of
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
* Giacopo Belgrado (1704–1789) – Jesuit professor of mathematics and physics and court mathematician who did experimental work in electricity
*
Michel Benoist
Michel Benoist (, 8 October 1715 in Dijon, France – 23 October 1774 in Beijing, China) was a Jesuit scientist who served for thirty years in the court of the Qianlong Emperor (1735 - 1796) during the Qing Dynasty, known for his architectur ...
(1715–1774) – missionary to China and scientist
* Mario Bettinus (1582–1657) – Jesuit philosopher, mathematician and astronomer; lunar crater Bettinus named after him
*
Giuseppe Biancani
Giuseppe Biancani, SJ (Latin: Josephus Blancanus) (1566–1624) was an Italian Jesuit astronomer, mathematician, and selenographer, after whom the crater Blancanus on the Moon is named. He was a native of Bologna.
Works
His ''Aristotelis ...
(1566–1624) – Jesuit astronomer, mathematician, and selenographer, after whom the crater Blancanus on the Moon is named
* Jacques de Billy (1602–1679) – Jesuit who has produced a number of results in number theory which have been named after him; published several astronomical tables; the crater Billy on the Moon is named after him
*
Paolo Boccone
Paolo Silvio Boccone (24 April 1633 – 22 December 1704) was an Italian botanist from Sicily, whose interest in plants had been sparked at a young age. Born in a rich family, he was able to dedicate most of his life to the study of botany.
Life
B ...
(1633–1704) – Cistercian botanist who contributed to the fields of medicine and toxicology
*
Bernard Bolzano
Bernard Bolzano (, ; ; ; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Gonzal Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his li ...
(1781–1848) – priest, mathematician, and logician whose other interests included metaphysics, ideas, sensation, and truth
* Anselmus de Boodt (1550–1632) – canon who was one of the founders of mineralogy
* Theodoric Borgognoni (1205–1298) – Dominican friar, Bishop of Cervia, and medieval Surgeon who made important contributions to antiseptic practice and anaesthetics
*
Thomas Borgmeier Thomas Borgmeier (31 October 1892 – 11 May 1975) was a German-Brazilian priest and entomologist and became a specialist on the ants of Brazil and on the flies in the family Phoridae. He was also the founder of the journals ''Revista de Entomologi ...
(1892–1975) – German-born priest and entomologist who worked in Brazil
* Christopher Borrus (1583–1632) – Jesuit mathematician and astronomy who made observations on the magnetic variation of the compass
* Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711–1787) – Croatian Jesuit polymath known for his contributions to modern atomic theory and astronomy and for devising perhaps the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a planet from three observations of its position
*
Joachim Bouvet
Joachim Bouvet (, courtesy name: 明远) (July 18, 1656, in Le Mans – June 28, 1730, in Peking) was a French Jesuit who worked in China, and the leading member of the Figurist movement.
China
Bouvet came to China in 1687, as one of six Jesuit ...
(1656–1730) – Jesuit sinologist and cartographer who did his work in China
* Michał Boym (c. 1612 – 1659) – Jesuit who was one of the first westerners to travel within the Chinese mainland, and the author of numerous works on Asian fauna, flora and geography
*
Thomas Bradwardine
Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1300 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often ca ...
(c. 1290 – 1349) – Archbishop of Canterbury and mathematician who helped develop the mean speed theorem; one of the Oxford Calculators
*
Martin Stanislaus Brennan
Martin Stanislaus Brennan (July 23, 1845 – October 3, 1927) was an American Roman Catholic priest and scientist known for writing books about religion and science.
Brennan wrote science textbooks for children as well as general interest books ...
(1845–1927) – priest and astronomer who wrote several books about science
* Henri Breuil (1877–1961) – priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist
* Jan Brożek (1585–1652) – Polish canon, polymath, mathematician, astronomer, and physician; the most prominent Polish mathematician of the 17th century
*
Pádraig de Brún
Pádraig de Brún (13 October 1889 – 5 June 1960), also called Patrick Joseph Monsignor Browne, was an Irish clergyman, mathematician, poet, and classical scholar, who served as President of University College, Galway (UCG). He was also know ...
(1889–1960) – Irish priest, mathematician, poet, and classical scholar; served as Professor of Mathematics at
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth
St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth ( ga, Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is the "National Seminary for Ireland" (a Roman Catholic college), and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, from Dublin, Ireland ...
, President of
University College Galway
The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 2 ...
Louis-Ovide Brunet
Louis-Ovide Brunet (10 March 1826 – 2 October 1876) was a French-Canadian botanist and Roman Catholic priest, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Canadian botany.
Brunet was born in Quebec City on 10 March 1826, the son of Jean-Oli ...
(1826–1876) – priest, one of the founding fathers of Canadian botany
* Ismaël Bullialdus (1605–1694) – priest, astronomer, and member of the Royal Society; the Bullialdus crater is named in his honor
* Jean Buridan (c. 1300 – after 1358) – priest who formulated early ideas of momentum and inertial motion and sowed the seeds of the Copernican revolution in Europe
*
Roberto Busa
Roberto Busa (November 28, 1913 – August 9, 2011) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the pioneers in the usage of computers for linguistic and literary analysis. He was the author of the ''Index Thomisticus'', a complete lemmatization of th ...
* Niccolò Cabeo (1586–1650) – Jesuit mathematician; the crater Cabeus is named in his honor
* Nicholas Callan (1799–1846) – priest and Irish scientist best known for his work on the induction coil
*
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi
Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi (28 October 1764 – 26 September 1852) was an Italian archdeacon, scientist, mathematician, political economist. He also wrote a book about pedagogy and invented the tonograph.
Life
Born at Altamura, in what is no ...
(1764–1852) – archdeacon, mathematician, political economist and inventor of the tonograph
*
John Cantius
John Cantius ( la, Joannes Cantius; pl, Jan z Kęt or ; 23 June 1390 – 24 December 1473) was a Polish priest, scholastic philosopher, physicist and theologian.
Biography
John Cantius was born in Kęty, a small town near Oświęcim, Pola ...
(1390–1473) – priest and Buridanist mathematical physicist who further developed the theory of impetus
* Jean Baptiste Carnoy (1836–1899) – priest, has been called the founder of the science of cytology
*
Giovanni di Casali
Giovanni (or Johannes) di Casali (or da Casale; c. 1320 – after 1374) was a friar in the Franciscan Order, a natural philosopher and a theologian, author of works on theology and science, and a papal legate.
He was born in Casale Monferrato ar ...
(died c. 1375) – Franciscan friar who provided a graphical analysis of the motion of accelerated bodies
* Paolo Casati (1617–1707) – Jesuit mathematician who wrote on astronomy, meteorology, and vacuums; the crater Casatus on the Moon is named after him; published ''Terra machinis mota'' (1658), a dialogue between Galileo, Paul Guldin and father Marin Mersenne on cosmology, geography, astronomy and geodesy, giving a positive image of Galileo 25 years after his conviction.
*
Laurent Cassegrain
Laurent Cassegrain (; – 1 September 1693) was a Catholic priest who is notable as the probable inventor of the Cassegrain reflector, a folded two-mirror reflecting telescope design.
Biography
Laurent Cassegrain was born in the region of Chartr ...
(1629–1693) – priest who was the probable namesake of the Cassegrain telescope; the crater Cassegrain on the Moon is named after him
* Louis Bertrand Castel (1688–1757) – French Jesuit physicist who worked on gravity and optics in a Cartesian context
*
Benedetto Castelli
Benedetto Castelli (1578 – 9 April 1643), born Antonio Castelli, was an Italian mathematician. Benedetto was his name in religion on entering the Benedictine Order in 1595.
Life
Born in Brescia, Castelli studied at the University of Padua and ...
(1578–1643) – Benedictine mathematician; long-time friend and supporter of Galileo Galilei, who was his teacher; wrote an important work on fluids in motion
* Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598–1647) – Jesuate (not to be confused with Jesuit) known for his work on the problems of optics and motion, work on the precursors of infinitesimal calculus, and the introduction of logarithms to Italy; his principle in geometry partially anticipated integral calculus; the lunar crater Cavalerius is named in his honor
* Antonio José Cavanilles (1745–1804) – priest and leading Spanish taxonomic botanist of the 18th century
*
Francesco Cetti
Francesco Cetti (9 August 1726 – 20 November 1778) was an Italian Jesuit priest, zoologist and mathematician.
Cetti was born in Mannheim in Germany, but his parents were natives of Como. He was educated in Lombardy and at the Jesuit colleg ...
(1726–1778) – Jesuit zoologist and mathematician
* Tommaso Ceva (1648–1737) – Jesuit mathematician, poet, and professor who wrote treatises on geometry, gravity, and arithmetic
* Christopher Clavius (1538–1612) – German mathematician and astronomer, most noted in connection with the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years d ...
, his arithmetic books were used by many mathematicians including Leibniz and Descartes
*
Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux
Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux (; french: Cœurdoux ; 18 December 1691, Bourges, France – 15 June 1779, Pondicherry, French India) was a French Jesuit missionary in South India and a noteworthy Indologist.
Early training
Cœurdoux entered the novitia ...
(1691–1779) – Jesuit ethnologist and philologer who composed the first treatise of Indology.
* Guy Consolmagno (1952–) – Jesuit astronomer and planetary scientist, serving as Director of the Vatican Observatory
*
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulat ...
(1473–1543) – Renaissance astronomer and canon famous for his heliocentric cosmology that set in motion the Copernican Revolution
* Vincenzo Coronelli (1650–1718) – Franciscan cosmographer, cartographer, encyclopedist, and globe-maker
* Bonaventura Corti (1729–1813) – Italian biologist and physicist who made microscopic observations on Tremels, rotifers and seaweeds
* George Coyne (1933–2020) – Jesuit astronomer and former director of the Vatican Observatory whose research interests have been in polarimetric studies of various subjects, including Seyfert galaxies
*
James Cullen (mathematician)
Father James Cullen, S.J. (19 April 1867 – 7 December 1933) was born at Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland.
He was born at 89 West Street, Drogheda, to Michael Cullen, a baker, and Catherine McDonough. Initially, he was educated privately, ...
(1867–1933) – Jesuit mathematician who published what is now known as Cullen numbers in number theory
* James Curley (astronomer) (1796–1889) – Jesuit, first director of Georgetown Observatory and determined the latitude and longitude of Washington, D.C.
* Albert Curtz (1600–1671) – Jesuit astronomer who expanded on the works of Tycho Brahe and contributed to early understanding of the moon; the crater Curtius on the Moon is named after him
*
Johann Baptist Cysat
Johann Baptist Cysat (Latinized as Cysatus; in French, Jean-Baptiste Cysat) (c. 1587 – March 17, 1657) was a Swiss Jesuit mathematician and astronomer, after whom the lunar crater Cysatus is named. He was born in Lucerne, as the eighth of 14 ...
(1587–1657) – Jesuit mathematician and astronomer, after whom the lunar crater Cysatus is named; published the first printed European book concerning Japan; one of the first to make use of the newly developed telescope; did important research on comets and the
Orion nebula
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the ni ...
Armand David
Father Armand David (7 September 1826, Espelette – 10 November 1900, Paris) was a Lazarist missionary Catholic priest as well as a zoologist and a botanist.
Several species, such as Père David's deer, are named after him — b ...
(1826–1900) – Lazarist priest, zoologist, and botanist who did important work in these fields in China
* Francesco Denza (1834–1894) – Barnabite meteorologist, astronomer, and director of Vatican Observatory
*
Václav Prokop Diviš Václav () is a Czech male first name of Slavic origin, sometimes translated into English as Wenceslaus or Wenceslas. These forms are derived from the old Slavic/Czech form of this name: Venceslav.
Nicknames are: Vašek, Vašík, Venca, Venda
For ...
(1698–1765) – Czech priest who studied electrical phenomenons and constructed, among other inventions, the first electrified musical instrument in history
*
Johann Dzierzon
Johann Dzierzon, or Jan Dzierżon or Dzierżoń , also John Dzierzon (16 January 1811 – 26 October 1906), was a Polish apiarist who discovered the phenomenon of parthenogenesis in bees.
Dzierzon came from a Polish family in Silesia. Trained ...
(1811–1906) – priest and pioneering apiarist who discovered the phenomenon of parthenogenesis among bees, and designed the first successful movable-frame beehive; has been described as the "father of modern apiculture"
F
*
Francesco Faà di Bruno
Francesco Faà di Bruno (7 March 1825 – 25 March 1888) was an Italian priest and advocate of the poor, a leading mathematician of his era and a noted religious musician. In 1988 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II.See the Vatican News Servic ...
(c. 1825–1888) – priest and mathematician beatified by Pope John Paul II
*
Honoré Fabri
Honoré Fabri (Honoratus Fabrius; 15 April 1608 – 8 March 1688) was a French Jesuit theologian, also known as ''Coningius''. He was a mathematician, physicist and controversialist.Jean-Charles de la Faille
Jean-Charles della Faille (Dutch: Jan-Karel della Faille, Spanish: Juan Carlos della Faille), born in Antwerp, 1 March 1597 and died in Barcelona, 4 November 1652, was a Flemish Jesuit priest from Brabant, and a mathematician of repute.
He w ...
(1597–1652) – Jesuit mathematician who determined the center of gravity of the sector of a circle for the first time
*
Gabriele Falloppio
Gabriele Falloppio (also Gabrielle Falloppia) (1522/23 – 9 October 1562) was an Italian anatomist often known by his Latin name Fallopius. He was one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century, giving his name ...
(1523–1562) – canon and one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century; the Fallopian tubes, which extend from the uterus to the ovaries, are named for him
*
Gyula Fényi
Fényi Gyula (8 January 1845 – 21 December 1927) was a Hungary, Hungarian Society of Jesus, Jesuit and astronomer. He is also known by the name ''P. Julius Fenyi SJ''. He is best known for his work on the Sun and leading the Haynald Observatory ...
(1845–1927) – Jesuit astronomer and director of the Haynald Observatory; noted for his observations of the sun; the crater Fényi on the Moon is named after him
*
Louis Feuillée
Louis Éconches Feuillée (sometimes spelled Feuillet) (1660, Mane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 18 April 1732) was a French member of the Order of the Minims, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist.
Biography
Feuillée was educated at th ...
(1660–1732) – Minim explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist
*
Kevin T. FitzGerald
Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ).
The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...
(1955–) – American molecular biologist and holds the Dr. David Lauler chair in Catholic Health Care Ethics at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
* Placidus Fixlmillner (1721–1791) – Benedictine priest and one of the first astronomers to compute the orbit of Uranus
*
Paolo Frisi
Paolo Frisi (13 April 1728 – 22 November 1784) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer.
Biography
Frisi was born in Melegnano in 1728; his sibling Antonio Francesco, born in 1735, went on to be a historian. Frisi was educated at the lo ...
(1728–1784) – priest, mathematician, and astronomer who did significant work in hydraulics
* José Gabriel Funes (1963–) – Jesuit astronomer and former director of the Vatican Observatory
* (1787–1837) – priest and physicist born in Vieste and working in Naples
G
*
Joseph Galien
Joseph Galien OP (born 1699, Saint-Paulien, France) was a Dominican professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Avignon, meteorologist, physicist, and writer on aeronautics.
Biography
Born at Saint-Paulien, near Le Puy-en-Velay in ...
(1699 – c. 1762) – Dominican professor who wrote on aeronautics, hailstorms, and airships
* Jean Gallois (1632–1707) – French scholar, abbot, and member of Académie des Sciences
* Leonardo Garzoni (1543–1592) – Jesuit natural philosopher; author of the first known example of a modern treatment of magnetic phenomena
*
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi (; also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much t ...
(1592–1655) – French priest, astronomer, and mathematician who published the first data on the transit of Mercury; best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity
*
Antoine Gaubil
Antoine Gaubil (b. at Gaillac, Tarn (department), Tarn, 14 July 1689; d. at Beijing, 24 July 1759) was French Jesuit missionary to China.
Life
He entered the Society of Jesus, 13 September 1704, was sent to China, where he arrived 26 June 1722. ...
(1689–1759) – French astronomer who was the director general of the College of Interpreters at the court of China between 1741 and 1759 and centralized information provided by the Jesuit observatories throughout the world
*
Agostino Gemelli
Agostino Gemelli (18 January 1878 – 15 July 1959) was an Italian Franciscan friar, physician and psychologist, who was also the founder and first Rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) of M ...
(1878–1959) – Franciscan physician and psychologist; founded Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
* Niccolò Gianpriamo (1686–1759) – Italian Jesuit, missionary and astronomer
*
Giuseppe Maria Giovene
Giuseppe Maria Giovene (23 January 1753 – 2 January 1837) was an Italian archpriest, naturalist, agronomist, geologist, meteorologist, entomologist and ichthyologist. elogio-storico, pag. 9, note 8 He is best known for his studies on the "nit ...
(1753–1837) – Italian archpriest, naturalist, meteorologist, agronomist and entomologist
*
Johannes von Gmunden :''Johannes von Gmünd is also the name of a 14th-century architect, see Basel Münster.''
Johannes von Gmunden ( la, Johannes de Gamundia; c. 1380/84 – February 23, 1442) was a German/Austrian astronomer, mathematician, humanist and early in ...
(c. 1380 – 1442) – canon, mathematician, and astronomer who compiled astronomical tables; Asteroid 15955 Johannesgmunden named in his honor
*
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora
Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (August 14, 1645 – August 22, 1700) was one of the first great intellectuals born in the New World - Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico City). He was a criollo patriot, exalting New Spain over Old. ...
(1645–1700) – priest, polymath, mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer; drew the first map of all of New Spain
* Gilles-François de Gottignies (1630–1689) – Belgian Jesuit mathematician and astronomer.
* Andrew Gordon (1712–1751) – Benedictine monk, priest, physicist, and inventor who made the first electric motor
*
Giovanni Antonio Grassi
Giovanni Antonio Grassi (anglicized as John Anthony Grassi; 10 September 1775 – 12 December 1849) was an Italian Catholic priest and Jesuit who led many academic and religious institutions in Europe and the United States, including Georget ...
(1775–1849) – Jesuit astronomer who calculated the longitude of Washington, D.C.
*
Orazio Grassi
Orazio Grassi, S.J. (b. Savona 1 May 1583 – d. Rome 23 July 1654), was an Italian Jesuit priest, who is best noted as a mathematician, astronomer and architect. He was one of the authors in controversy with Galileo Galilei on the nature of come ...
(1583–1654) – Jesuit mathematician, astronomer and architect; engaged in controversy with Galileo on the subject of comets
*
Christoph Grienberger
Christoph (Christophorus) Grienberger (also variously spelled Gruemberger, Bamberga, Bamberger, Banbergiera, Gamberger, Ghambergier, Granberger, Panberger) (2 July 1561 – 11 March 1636) was an Austrian Jesuit astronomer, after whom the crate ...
(1561–1636) – Jesuit astronomer after whom the crater Gruemberger on the Moon is named; verified Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons.
*
Francesco Maria Grimaldi
Francesco Maria Grimaldi, SJ (2 April 1618 – 28 December 1663) was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician and physicist who taught at the Jesuit college in Bologna. He was born in Bologna to Paride Grimaldi and Anna Cattani.
Work
Between ...
(1618–1663) – Jesuit who discovered the diffraction of light (indeed coined the term "diffraction"), investigated the free fall of objects, and built and used instruments to measure geological features on the moon
* Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175 – 1253) – bishop who was one of the most knowledgeable men of the Middle Ages; has been called "the first man ever to write down a complete set of steps for performing a scientific experiment"
* Johann Grueber (1623–1680) – Jesuit missionary and astronomer in China
*
Paul Guldin
Paul Guldin (born Habakkuk Guldin; 12 June 1577 ( Mels) – 3 November 1643 (Graz)) was a Swiss Jesuit mathematician and astronomer. He discovered the Guldinus theorem to determine the surface and the volume of a solid of revolution. (This theor ...
(1577–1643) – Jesuit mathematician and astronomer who discovered the Guldinus theorem to determine the surface and the volume of a solid of revolution
*
Bartolomeu de Gusmão
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (December 1685 – 18 November 1724) was a Brazilian-born Portuguese priest and naturalist, who was a pioneer of lighter-than-air airship design.
Early life
Gusmão was born at Santos, then part of the Portugue ...
(1685–1724) – Jesuit known for his early work on lighter-than-air airship design
H
*
Johann Georg Hagen
Johann (John) Georg Hagen (March 6, 1847 – September 6, 1930) was an Austrian Jesuit priest and astronomer. After serving as Director of the Georgetown University Observatory he was called to Rome by Pope Pius X in 1906 to be the first Je ...
(1847–1930) – Jesuit director of the Georgetown and Vatican Observatories; the crater Hagen on the Moon is named after him
* Frank Haig (1928–) – American physics professor
*
Nicholas Halma
Nicholas Halma (31 December 1755, Sedan, Ardennes – 4 June 1828, Paris) was a mathematician and translator.
He was educated at the College of Plessis, Paris, took Holy orders, and received the title of Abbé. In 1791 he became principal of Seda ...
(1755–1828) – French abbot, mathematician, and translator
*
Jean-Baptiste du Hamel Jean-Baptiste Du Hamel, Duhamel or du Hamel (11 June 1624 – 6 August 1706) was a French cleric and natural philosopher of the late seventeenth century, and the first secretary of the Academie Royale des Sciences. As its first secretary, he in ...
(1624–1706) – French priest, natural philosopher, and secretary of the Academie Royale des Sciences
*
René Just Haüy
René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on crystal structure and hi ...
(1743–1822) – priest known as the father of
crystallography
Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The wor ...
*
Maximilian Hell
Maximilian Hell ( hu, Hell Miksa) (born Rudolf Maximilian Höll; May 15, 1720 – April 14, 1792) was an astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Biography
Born as Rudolf Maximilian Höll in Selmecbánya, Hont Co ...
(1720–1792) – Jesuit astronomer and director of the Vienna Observatory who wrote astronomy tables and observed the
Transit of Venus
frameless, upright=0.5
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a trans ...
; the crater Hell on the Moon is named after him
*
Michał Heller
Michał Kazimierz Heller (born 12 March 1936 in Tarnów) is a Polish professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff.
He also serves as a lecture ...
(1936–) – Polish priest, Templeton Prize winner, and prolific writer on numerous scientific topics
* Lorenz Hengler (1806–1858) – priest often credited as the inventor of the horizontal pendulum
*
Hermann of Reichenau
Blessed Hermann of Reichenau (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as many hymns. ...
(1013–1054) – Benedictine historian, music theorist, astronomer, and mathematician
*
Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro
Lorenzo may refer to:
People
* Lorenzo (name)
Places Peru
* San Lorenzo Island (Peru), sometimes referred to as the island of Lorenzo
United States
* Lorenzo, Illinois
* Lorenzo, Texas
* San Lorenzo, California, formerly Lorenzo
* Lorenzo State ...
(1735–1809) – Jesuit philologer and discoverer of the Austronesian language family.
*
Pierre Marie Heude
Pierre Marie Heude (25 June 1836 – 3 January 1902) was a French Jesuit missionary and zoologist.
Life
Born at Fougères in the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine, Heude became a Jesuit in 1856 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1867. He went to C ...
(1836–1902) – Jesuit missionary and zoologist who studied the natural history of Eastern Asia
* Franz von Paula Hladnik (1773–1844) – priest and botanist who discovered several new kinds of plants, and certain genera have been named after him
* Giovanni Battista Hodierna (1597–1660) – priest and astronomer who catalogued nebulous objects and developed an early microscope
*
Johann Baptiste Horvath
Johann Baptiste Horvath ( hu, Keresztély János Horváth, 13 July 1732 in Kőszeg – 20 October 1799 in Buda) was a Hungarian Jesuit Professor of Physics and Philosophy at the Catholic university for teaching theology and philosophy in Nagyszo ...
(1732–1799) – Hungarian physicist who taught physics and philosophy at the University of Tyrnau, later of Buda, and wrote many Newtonian textbooks
*
Victor-Alphonse Huard
Victor-Alphonse Huard (born Joseph-Alphonse, sometimes given as Joseph-Victor Alphonse; 28 February 1853 – 15 October 1929) was a French-Canadian churchman, naturalist, writer and editor. He was a popular educator and promoter of the natural sc ...
(1853–1929) – priest, naturalist, educator, writer, and promoter of the natural sciences
I
*
Maximus von Imhof
Maximus Ritter von Imhof (26 July 1758 – 11 April 1817), born at Reisbach, in Bavaria, was a German physicist. He taught in the monastery in Munich from 1786 to 1791.Catholic Encyclopedia article See also
*List of Roman Catholic scientist-cleri ...
(1758–1817) – German Augustinian physicist and director of the Munich Academy of Sciences
*
Giovanni Inghirami
Giovanni Inghirami, Sch.P., (April 16, 1779 – August 15, 1851) was an Italian astronomer, as well as being a Catholic priest and Piarist. There is a valley on the moon named Vallis Inghirami after him as well as a crater.
Life
Inghirami was ...
(1779–1851) – Italian Piarist astronomer who has a valley on the moon named after him as well as a crater
J
*
Frans Alfons Janssens
Frans Alfons Janssens ( Sint-Niklaas 23 July 1865 - Wichelen, 8 October 1924) was Catholic priest and the discoverer of crossing-over of genes during meiosis, which he called 'chiasmatypie'. His work was continued by the Nobel Prize winner Thomas ...
(1865–1924) – Catholic priest and the discoverer of crossing-over of genes during meiosis, which he called 'chiasmatypie'
* François Jacquier (1711–1788) – Franciscan mathematician and physicist; at his death he was connected with nearly all the great scientific and literary societies of Europe
*
Stanley Jaki
Stanley L. Jaki (Jáki Szaniszló László) (17 August 1924 in Győr, Hungary – 7 April 2009 in Madrid, Spain) was a Hungarian-born priest of the Benedictine order. From 1975 to his death, he was Distinguished University Professor at Seton H ...
(1924–2009) – Benedictine priest and prolific writer who wrote on the relationship between science and theology
*
Ányos Jedlik
Ányos István Jedlik ( hu, Jedlik Ányos István; sk, Štefan Anián Jedlík; in older texts and publications: la, Stephanus Anianus Jedlik; 11 January 1800 – 13 December 1895) was a Hungarian inventor, engineer, physicist, and Bened ...
(1800–1895) – Benedictine engineer, physicist, and inventor; considered by Hungarians and Slovaks to be the unsung father of the dynamo and electric motor
K
*
Georg Joseph Kamel
Georg Joseph Kamel (; la, Georgius Josephus Camellus; cz, Jiří Josef Kamel; es, Jorge Camel; 12 April 1661 – 2 May 1706) was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist and naturalist known for producing the first comprehensive accounts of Philippine f ...
(1661–1706) – Jesuit missionary and botanist who established the first pharmacy in the Philippines; the genus ''
Camellia
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controversy ...
'' is named for him
*
Eusebio Kino
Eusebio Francisco Kino ( it, Eusebio Francesco Chini, es, Eusebio Francisco Kino; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was a Tyrolean Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer born i ...
(1645–1711) – Jesuit missionary, mathematician, astronomer and cartographer; drew maps based on his explorations first showing that California was not an island, as then believed; published an astronomical treatise in Mexico City of his observations of the Kirsch comet
*
Otto Kippes
Otto Kippes (23 July 1905 – 2 February 1994) was a German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer, born in Bamberg, Bavaria. He was acknowledged especially for his work in asteroid orbit calculations, which brought him the Amateur Achievement A ...
(1905–1994) – priest acknowledged for his work in asteroid orbit calculations; the main belt asteroid 1780 Kippes was named in his honour
* Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) – Jesuit who has been called the father of Egyptology and "Master of a hundred arts"; wrote an encyclopedia of China; one of the first people to observe microbes through a microscope; in his ''Scrutinium Pestis'' of 1658 he noted the presence of "little worms" or "animalcules" in the blood, and concluded that the disease was caused by micro-organisms; this is antecedent to
germ theory
The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade ...
* Wenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer (1588–1626) – Jesuit astronomer and missionary to China who published observations of comets
*
Jan Krzysztof Kluk
Jan Krzysztof Kluk (September 13, 1739 – July 2, 1796) was a Polish naturalist agronomist and entomologist.
He was the son of Jan Krzysztof Adrian and Marianna Elżbieta. His father, an impoverished nobleman, was a building contractor and ...
(1739–1796) – priest, naturalist agronomist, and entomologist who wrote a multi-volume work on Polish animal life
* Marian Wolfgang Koller (1792–1866) – Benedictine professor who wrote on astronomy, physics, and meteorology
*
Franz Xaver Kugler
Franz Xaver Kugler (27 November 1862 – 25 January 1929) was a German chemist, mathematician, Assyriologist, and Jesuit priest..
Kugler was born in Königsbach, Palatinate, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He earned a Ph.D. in chemist ...
(1862–1929) – Jesuit chemist, mathematician, and Assyriologist who is most noted for his studies of cuneiform tablets and Babylonian astronomy
L
*
Ramon Llull
Ramon Llull (; c. 1232 – c. 1315/16) was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, and Christian apologist from the Kingdom of Majorca.
He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art'', conceived as a type of universal logic to pro ...
(c. 1232 – c. 1315) – Majorcan writer and philosopher, logician and a Franciscan tertiary considered a pioneer of computation theory
*
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille
Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Goo ...
(1713–1762) – French deacon and astronomer noted for cataloguing stars, nebulous objects, and constellations
*
Joseph-Clovis-Kemner Laflamme
Joseph-Clovis-Kemner Laflamme (September 19, 1849 – July 6, 1910) was a Canadians, Canadian Roman Catholic priest, academic, and writer.
Born in Saint-Anselme, Quebec, Saint-Anselme, Lower Canada, the son of David Kemner dit Laflamme and Josepht ...
(1849–1910) – chair of mineralogy and geology at
Université Laval
Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montmo ...
,
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of the
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
from 1891 to 1892, and chevalier of the
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
*
Eugene Lafont
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
(1837–1908) – Jesuit physicist, astronomer, and founder of the first Scientific Society in India
* Antoine de Laloubère (1600–1664) – Jesuit and first mathematician to study the properties of the helix
*
Bernard Lamy
Bernard Lamy (15 June 1640 – 29 January 1715) was a French Oratorian, mathematician and theologian.
Life
Lamy was born in Le Mans, France. After studying there, he went to join the Maison d'Institution in Paris, and to Saumur thereafter. I ...
(1640–1715) – Oratorian philosopher and mathematician who wrote on the parallelogram of forces
*
Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga
Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (Montevideo, 9 December 1771 – Montevideo, 16 February 1848) was a Uruguayan priest, naturalist and botanist.
He was one of those principally responsible for the founding of the National Library of Uruguay
The ' ...
(1771–1848) – Uruguayan priest, naturalist and botanist who made important contributions to these scientific disciplines. He was a decisive influence behind the foundation of the
National Library of Uruguay
The ' is the National Library of Uruguay, located in Montevideo. It was created in 1815 and is the legal deposit and copyright library for Uruguay. It has been located in its current building since 1955. In 2006, it had more than 900,000 book ...
Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...
(1762–1833) – priest and entomologist whose works describing insects assigned many of the insect taxa still in use today
*
Georges Lemaître
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître ( ; ; 17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first to t ...
(1894–1966) – Belgian priest and father of the
Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
theory
*
Émile Licent
Émile Licent (1876–1952; with the adopted Chinese name, 桑志华, while he was working in China) was a French Jesuit trained as a natural historian. He spent more than twenty-five years researching in Tianjin. His expeditions spread across vari ...
(1876–1952) – French Jesuit trained as a natural historian; spent more than 25 years researching in Tianjin, China
*
Joseph Liesganig
Joseph Xaver Liesganig (13 February 1719 – 4 March 1799) was a Jesuit priest and geodesist who was a professor of mathematics at the University of Vienna. He taught mathematics from 1742 at the University of Graz. He was involved in measuring the ...
(1719–1799) – Austrian astronomer and geodesist who managed the Jesuit observatory in Vienna between 1756 and 1773
*
Thomas Linacre
Thomas Linacre or Lynaker ( ; 20 October 1524) was an English humanist scholar and physician, after whom Linacre College, Oxford, and Linacre House, a boys' boarding house at The King's School, Canterbury, are named.
Linacre was more of a schola ...
(c. 1460 – 1524) – English priest, humanist, translator, and physician
*
Francis Line
Francis Line, SJ (1595 – 15 November 1675), also known as Linus of Liège, was a Jesuit priest and scientist. He is known for inventing a magnetic clock. He is noted as a contemporary critic of the theories and work of Isaac Newton. He also c ...
(1595–1675) – Jesuit magnetic clock and sundial maker who disagreed with some of the findings of Newton and Boyle
*
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz, 23 May 1606 in Madrid — 7 or 8 September 1682 in Vigevano) was a Spanish Catholic scholastic philosopher, ecclesiastic, mathematician and writer. He is believed to be a great-grandson of J ...
(1606–1682) – Cistercian who wrote on a variety of scientific subjects, including probability theory
*
João de Loureiro
João de Loureiro (1717, Lisbon – 18 October 1791) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and botanist.
Biography
After receiving admission to the Jesuit Order, João de Loureiro served as a missionary in Goa, capital of Portuguese India (3 yea ...
(1717–1791) – Portuguese mathematician and botanist active in Cochinchina
M
*
Jean Mabillon
Dom Jean Mabillon, O.S.B., (; 23 November 1632 – 27 December 1707) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics.
Early life
Mabil ...
(1632–1707) – Benedictine monk and scholar, considered the founder of
palaeography
Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") ...
and
diplomatics
Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
* James B. Macelwane (1883–1956) – Jesuit seismologist who contributed a volume to the first textbook on seismology in America
*
John MacEnery
John MacEnery (27 November 1796 – 18 February 1841) was a Roman Catholic priest from Limerick, Ireland and early archaeologist who came to Devon as Chaplain to the Cary family at Torre Abbey in 1822. In 1825, 1826 and 1829, he investigated the ...
(1797–1841) – archaeologist who investigated the Palaeolithic remains at
Kents Cavern
Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable for its archaeological and geological features. The cave system is open to the public and has been a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1952 and a Schedule ...
* Manuel Magri (1851–1907) – Jesuit ethnographer, archaeologist and writer; one of Malta's pioneers in archaeology
* Emmanuel Maignan (1601–1676) – Minim physicist and professor of medicine who published works on gnomonics and perspective
* Christopher Maire (1697–1767) – Jesuit astronomer and mathematician who collaborated with
Roger Boscovich
Roger Joseph Boscovich ( hr, Ruđer Josip Bošković; ; it, Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich; la, Rogerius (Iosephus) Boscovicius; sr, Руђер Јосип Бошковић; 18 May 1711 – 13 February 1787) was a physicist, astronomer, ...
on calculations of the arc of the meridian
* (1724–1793) – Hungarian mathematician and physicist who taught mathematics, experimental physics and mechanics at the Vienna Theresianum and had a part in the preparation of the ''Ratio educationis'' (1777), which reformed the imperial teaching system in the spirit of Enlightenment
*
Charles Malapert
Charles Malapert (1581–1630) was a Jesuit writer, astronomer and proponent of Aristotelian cosmology, from the Spanish Netherlands. He was considered one of the intellectual champions of the Roman Catholic Church. He used observations of come ...
(1581–1630) – Jesuit writer, astronomer, and proponent of Aristotelian cosmology; also known for observations of sunpots, the lunar surface, and the southern sky; the crater Malapert on the Moon is named after him
*
Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche ( , ; 6 August 1638 – 13 October 1715) was a French Oratorian Catholic priest and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the ...
(1638–1715) – Oratorian philosopher who studied physics, optics, and the laws of motion and disseminated the ideas of Descartes and Leibniz
*
Marcin of Urzędów
Marcin of Urzędów ( pl, Marcin z Urzędowa, ; ca. 1500–1573) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, physician, pharmacist and botanist known especially for his ''Herbarz polski'' ("Polish Herbal").
Marcin, son of Szymon, was born ca. 1500 ...
Joseph Maréchal
Joseph Maréchal, SJ (; 1 July 1878 – 11 December 1944) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, philosopher, theologian and psychologist. He taught at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the University of Leuven and was the founder of the school o ...
(1878–1944) – Jesuit philosopher and psychologist
*
Edme Mariotte
Edme Mariotte (; ; c. 162012 May 1684) was a French physicist and priest ( abbé). He is particularly well known for formulating Boyle's law independently of Robert Boyle. Mariotte is also credited with designing the first Newton's cradle.
Biogr ...
(c. 1620 – 1684) – priest and physicist who recognized Boyle's Law and wrote about the nature of color
* Francesco Maurolico (1494–1575) – Benedictine who made contributions to the fields of geometry, optics, conics, mechanics, music, and astronomy, and gave the first known proof by mathematical induction
*
Christian Mayer (astronomer)
Christian Mayer (20 August 1719 Mederitz – 16 April 1783 in Mannheim) was a Moravian-German Catholic priest, astronomer and teacher.
Life
He was born in Mederitz, Moravia. He became educated in Greek, Latin, mathematics,
philosop ...
(1719–1783) – Jesuit astronomer most noted for pioneering the study of binary stars
*
James Robert McConnell
Fr. James Robert C. McConnell (born Dublin 25 February 1915; died 13 February 1999) was an Irish Catholic priest and theoretical physicist.
McConnell entered University College Dublin (UCD) in 1932 and graduated in 1936 with a first-class honours ...
Michael C. McFarland
Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. (born 1948) was the 31st president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He succeeded Acting President Frank Vellaccio on July 1, 2000, and was succeeded by Rev. Philip Boroughs, S.J.
Biog ...
(1948–) – American computer scientist and president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts
* Paul McNally (1890–1955) – Jesuit astronomer and director of Georgetown Observatory; the crater McNally on the Moon is named after him
* William W. Meissner (1931–2010) – Jesuit psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theorist, recipient of the Oskar Pfister Award and William C. Bier Award
*
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was ...
(1822–1884) – Augustinian monk and father of
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
*
Pietro Mengoli
Pietro Mengoli (1626, Bologna – June 7, 1686, Bologna) was an Italian mathematician and clergyman from Bologna, where he studied with Bonaventura Cavalieri at the University of Bologna, and succeeded him in 1647. He remained as professor there ...
(1626–1686) – priest and mathematician who first posed the famous Basel Problem
*
Giuseppe Mercalli
Giuseppe Mercalli (21 May 1850 – 19 March 1914) was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity.
Biography
Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman C ...
(1850–1914) – priest, volcanologist, and director of the Vesuvius Observatory who is best remembered today for his Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes which is still in use
*
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...
(1588–1648) – Minim philosopher, mathematician, and music theorist, so-called "father of acoustics"
*
Paul of Middelburg
Paul of Middelburg (1446 – 13 December 1534) was a scientist from Zeeland and bishop of Fossombrone.
Biography and work
Paul was born in 1446 at Middelburg, the ancient capital of the province of Zeeland, belonging then to the Holy Roman Empir ...
(1446–1534) – Bishop who wrote on the reform of the calendar
*
Maciej Miechowita
Maciej Miechowita (also known as ''Maciej z Miechowa, Maciej of Miechów, Maciej Karpiga, Matthias de Miechow''; 1457 – 8 September 1523) was a Polish renaissance scholar, professor of Jagiellonian University, historian, chronicler, geogra ...
(1457–1523) – canon who wrote the first accurate geographical and ethnographical description of Eastern Europe, as well as two medical treatises
*
François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno
Abbé François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno (; 15 April 1804 – 14 July 1884) was a French Catholic priest and one time Jesuit, as well as a physicist and author. He considered himself a student of Cauchy.
Life
Moigno was born at Guémené-sur-Scorf ...
(1804–1884) – Jesuit physicist and mathematician; was an expositor of science and translator rather than an original investigator
*
Juan Ignacio Molina
Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina (; (June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist. He is usually referred to as Abate Molina (a form of Abbot Moli ...
(1740–1829) – Jesuit naturalist, historian, botanist, ornithologist and geographer
*
Gerald Molloy
Gerald Molloy (born at Mount Tallant House, near Dublin, 10 September 1834; died at Aberdeen, 1 October 1906) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, theologian and scientist.
Life
He was educated at Castleknock College, and subsequently went to M ...
(1834–1906) – Irish priest, professor of natural philosophy at (and later Rector of) the
Catholic University of Ireland
The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI; ga, Ollscoil Chaitliceach na hÉireann) was a private Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University o ...
, and expert on electricity
*
Louis Moréri
Louis Moréri (25 March 1643 – 10 July 1680) was a French priest and encyclopedist.
Life
Moréri was born in 1643 in Bargemon, a village in the ancient province of Provence. His great-grandfather, Joseph Chatranet, a native of Dijon, had set ...
(1643–1680) – 17th-century priest and encyclopaedist
*
Theodorus Moretus
Theodorus Moretus, also known as Theodor or Theodore Moretus (1602–1667) was a Flemish Jesuit priest who was also a mathematician, geometer, theologian and philosopher. He spent most of his working life in Prague and Wrocław, Breslau (now Wrocl ...
(1602–1667) – Jesuit mathematician and author of the first mathematical dissertations ever defended in Prague; the lunar crater Moretus is named after him
*
Roberto Landell de Moura
Father Roberto Landell de Moura (January 21, 1861 – June 30, 1928), commonly known as Roberto Landell, was a Brazilian Roman Catholic priest and inventor. He is best known for his work developing long-distance audio transmissions, using a varie ...
(1861–1928) – Brazilian Jesuit, developing long-distance audio transmissions, using a variety of technologies, including an improved megaphone device. photophone (using light beams) and radio signals.
*
Gabriel Mouton
Gabriel Mouton (1618 – 28 September 1694) was a French abbot and scientist. He was a doctor of theology from Lyon, but was also interested in mathematics and astronomy. His 1670 book, the ''Observationes diametrorum solis et lunae apparenti ...
(1618–1694) – abbot, mathematician, astronomer, and early proponent of the metric system
*
Jozef Murgaš
Jozef Murgaš (English Joseph Murgas) (17 February 1864 – 11 May 1929) was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to wireless telegraphy and helped in the development of mobile communicati ...
(1864–1929) – priest who contributed to wireless telegraphy and helped develop mobile communications and wireless transmission of information and human voice
*
José Celestino Mutis
José Celestino Bruno Mutis y Bosio (6 April 1732 – 11 September 1808) was a Spanish priest, botanist and mathematician. He was a significant figure in the Spanish American Enlightenment, whom Alexander von Humboldt met with on his expedit ...
(1732–1808) – canon, botanist, and mathematician who led the Royal Botanical Expedition of the New World
N
*
Bienvenido Nebres
Bienvenido F. Nebres (born March 15, 1940) is a Filipino scientist, mathematician, and a Jesuit priest who was the longest-serving university president of the Ateneo de Manila University. He succeeded Joaquin G. Bernas in 1993, and served as Uni ...
(1940–) – Filipino mathematician, president of
Ateneo de Manila University
, mottoeng = Light in the Lord
, type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution
, established = December 10, 1859
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits)
, academic_aff ...
, and an honoree of the
National Scientist of the Philippines
The Order of National Scientists of the Philippines, abbreviated as ONS, is the highest award accorded to Filipino scientists by the Philippine government. Members of the order are known as National Scientists ( Filipino: ''Pambansang Alagad ng Ag ...
award
*
John Needham
John Turberville Needham FRS (10 September 1713 – 30 December 1781) was an English biologist and Roman Catholic priest.
He was first exposed to natural philosophy while in seminary school and later published a paper which, while the subjec ...
(1713–1781) – English biologist and Catholic priest
*
Antonio Neri
Antonio Neri (29 February 1576, Florence – 1614) was a Florentine priest who published the book ''L’Arte Vetraria'' or ''The Art of Glass'' in 1612. This book was the first general treatise on the systematics of glassmaking.
Early life and ...
(1576–1614) – Italian priest who wrote the first major treatise on the science of
glassmaking
Glass production involves two main methods – the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers. It has been done in a variety of ways during the history of glass.
Glass container ...
*
Jean François Niceron
Jean-François Niceron (5 July 1613 – 22 September 1646) was a French mathematician, Minim friar, and painter of anamorphic art, on which he wrote the ground-breaking book ''La Perspective Curieuse'' (Curious Perspectives).
Biography
Jean- ...
(1613–1646) – Minim mathematician who studied geometrical optics
*
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...
(1401–1464) – cardinal, philosopher, jurist, mathematician, astronomer, and one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century
*
Julius Nieuwland
Julius Aloysius Arthur Nieuwland, CSC, (14 February 1878 – 11 June 1936) was a Belgian-born Holy Cross priest and professor of chemistry and botany at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is known for his contributions to acetylene r ...
(1878–1936) – Holy Cross priest, known for his contributions to acetylene research and its use as the basis for one type of synthetic rubber, which eventually led to the invention of neoprene by DuPont
*
Jean-Antoine Nollet
Jean-Antoine Nollet (; 19 November 170025 April 1770) was a French clergyman and physicist who did a number of experiments with electricity and discovered osmosis. As a deacon in the Catholic Church, he was also known as Abbé Nollet.
Biography ...
(1700–1770) – abbot and physicist who discovered the phenomenon of osmosis in natural membranes
O
*
Hugo Obermaier
Hugo Obermaier (29 January 1877, in Regensburg – 12 November 1946, in Fribourg) was a distinguished Spanish-German prehistorian and anthropologist who taught at various European centres of learning. Although he was born in Germany, he was late ...
(1877–1946) – priest, prehistorian, and anthropologist who is known for his work on the diffusion of mankind in Europe during the Ice Age, as well as his work with north Spanish cave art
* William of Ockham (c. 1288 – c. 1348) – Franciscan Scholastic who wrote significant works on logic, physics, and theology; known for
Occam's razor
Occam's razor, Ockham's razor, or Ocham's razor ( la, novacula Occami), also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony ( la, lex parsimoniae), is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond neces ...
-principle
* Nicole Oresme (c. 1323 – 1382) – one of the most famous and influential philosophers of the later Middle Ages; economist, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lisieux, and competent translator; one of the most original thinkers of the 14th century
*
Barnaba Oriani
Barnaba Oriani Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (17 July 1752 – 12 November 1832) was an Italian priest, geodesist, astronomer and scientist.
Life
Oriani was born in Garegnano (now part of Milan), the son of a mason, and died in Milan.
A ...
(1752–1832) – Barnabite geodesist, astronomer and scientist whose greatest achievement was his detailed research of the planet Uranus; also known for Oriani's theorem
P
*
Tadeusz Pacholczyk
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. (born 1964) is an American Roman Catholic priest, neuroscientist and writer.
Biography
Pacholczyk grew up in Tucson, Arizona to a Polish family. His father Andrzej Pacholczyk was a professor of astrophysics at the U ...
(1965–) – priest, neuroscientist and writer
* Luca Pacioli (c. 1446–1517) – Franciscan friar who published several works on mathematics; often regarded as the "father of accounting"
* Ignace-Gaston Pardies (1636–1673) – Jesuit physicist known for his correspondence with Newton and Descartes
*
Franciscus Patricius
Franciscus Patricius ( Croatian: ''Franjo Petriš'' or ''Frane Petrić'', Italian: ''Francesco Patrizi''; 25 April 1529 – 6 February 1597) was a philosopher and scientist from the Republic of Venice, originating from Cres. He was known as a ...
(1529–1597) – priest, cosmic theorist, philosopher, and Renaissance scholar
*
John Peckham
John Peckham (c. 1230 – 8 December 1292) was Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292. He was a native of Sussex who was educated at Lewes Priory and became a Friar Minor about 1250. He studied at the University of Paris under B ...
(1230–1292) – Archbishop of Canterbury and early practitioner of experimental science
* Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) – abbot and astronomer who discovered the Orion Nebula; lunar crater Peirescius named in his honor
*
Stephen Joseph Perry
Stephen Joseph Perry SJ FRS (26 August 1833, in London – 27 December 1889) was an English Jesuit and astronomer, known as a participant in scientific expeditions.
Life
He belonged to a well-known Catholic family. His schooling was firs ...
(1833–1889) – Jesuit astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society; made frequent observations of Jupiter's satellites, of stellar occultations, of comets, of meteorites, of sun spots, and faculae
*
Giambattista Pianciani
Giambattista (or Giovanni Battista) Pianciani (27 October 1784, in Spoleto – 23 March 1862, in Rome) was an Italian Jesuit scientist.
Biography
He entered the Society of Jesus on 2 June 1805; after having received the ordinary Jesuit tr ...
(1784–1862) – Jesuit mathematician and physicist who established the electric nature of aurora borealis
*
Giuseppe Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi ( , ; 16 July 1746 – 22 July 1826) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the '' Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe ...
(1746–1826) – Theatine mathematician and astronomer who discovered Ceres, today known as the largest member of the asteroid belt; also did important work cataloguing stars
* Jean Picard (1620–1682) – priest and first person to measure the size of the Earth to a reasonable degree of accuracy; also developed what became the standard method for measuring the right ascension of a celestial object; the PICARD mission, an orbiting solar observatory, is named in his honor
*
Edward Pigot
Edward Francis Pigot (18 September 1858 – 22 May 1929) was an Irish-born Australian Jesuit priest, seismologist and astronomer. He was president of the New South Wales branch of the British Astronomical Association in 1923-24 and a council mem ...
(1858–1929) – Jesuit seismologist and astronomer
* Alexandre Guy Pingré (1711–1796) – French priest astronomer and naval geographer; the crater Pingré on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 12719 Pingré
*
Andrew Pinsent
Fr. Andrew Pinsent (born 1966) is Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, part of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is also a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, an ...
(1966–) – priest whose current research includes the application of insights from autism and social cognition to 'second-person' accounts of moral perception and character formation; his previous scientific research contributed to the DELPHI experiment at CERN
*
Jean Baptiste François Pitra
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* J ...
(1812–1889) – Benedictine cardinal, archaeologist and theologian who noteworthy for his great archaeological discoveries
*
Charles Plumier
Charles Plumier (; 20 April 1646 – 20 November 1704) was a French botanist after whom the frangipani genus ''Plumeria'' is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. He made three botanizing ...
(1646–1704) – Minim friar who is considered one of the most important botanical explorers of his time
*
Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt
Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt ( lt, Martynas Počobutas; 30 October 1728 near Grodno – 7 February 1810 in Daugavpils) was a Polish–Lithuanian Jesuit, astronomer and mathematician. He was professor of Vilnius University for over 50 year ...
(1728–1810) – Jesuit astronomer and mathematician; granted the title of the King's Astronomer; the crater Poczobutt on the Moon is named after him; taught astronomy at Vilna University (1764–1808), managed its observatory and was the rector of Vilna University between 1777 and 1808
*
Léon Abel Provancher
Léon Abel Provancher (born 10 March 1820, in the parish of Bécancour, Nicolet County, Quebec; d. at Cap-Rouge, Quebec, 23 March 1892) was a Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist. He is called the "Father of Natural History in Canada" ...
(1820–1892) – priest and naturalist devoted to the study and description of the fauna and flora of Canada; his pioneer work won for him the appellation of the "father of natural history in Canada"
R
*
Claude Rabuel
Claude Rabuel (1669 – 1729) was a French Jesuit mathematician. He analyzed Descartes's '' Géométrie.''
Rabuel was professor at the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon.
Works
* From Biblioteca europea di informazione e cultura
** From Int ...
(1669–1729) – Jesuit mathematician who analyzed Descartes's ''Géométrie''
*
Louis Receveur
Claude-Francois Joseph Louis Receveur Conventual Franciscans, O.F.M. Conv., (1757 – 17 February 1788) was a French friar Priesthood (Catholic Church), priest, naturalist and astronomer who sailed with Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérous ...
(1757–1788) – Franciscan naturalist and astronomer; described as being as close as one could get to being an ecologist in the 18th century
* Franz Reinzer (1661–1708) – Jesuit who wrote an in-depth meteorological, astrological, and political compendium covering topics such as comets, meteors, lightning, winds, fossils, metals, bodies of water, and subterranean treasures and secrets of the earth
*
Louis Rendu Louis Rendu (December 9, 1789 in Meyrin – August 28, 1859) was French Roman Catholic bishop of Annecy and a scientist.
He was the author of ''Theorie des glaciers de la Savoie'', an important book on the mechanisms of glacial motion. The Rendu ...
(1789–1859) – bishop who wrote an important book on the mechanisms of glacial motion; the Rendu Glacier, Alaska, US and Mount Rendu, Antarctica are named for him
*
Vincenzo Riccati
Vincenzo Riccati (Castelfranco Veneto, 11 January 1707 – Treviso, 17 January 1775) was a Venetian mathematician and physicist.
Life
Vincenzo Riccati was the brother of Giordano Riccati, and the second son of Jacopo Riccati. He entered the ...
(1707–1775) – Italian Jesuit mathematician and physicist
* Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) – one of the founding fathers of the Jesuit China Mission and co-author of the first European-Chinese dictionary
* Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671) – Jesuit astronomer who authored ''Almagestum novum'', an influential encyclopedia of astronomy; the first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body; created a selenograph with Father Grimaldi that now adorns the entrance at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.; first to note that
Mizar
Mizar is a second- magnitude star in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has the Bayer designation ζ Ursae Majoris ( Latinised as Zeta Ursae Majoris). It forms a well-known naked eye ...
was a "
double star
In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes.
This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...
"
*
Richard of Wallingford
Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336) was an English mathematician, astronomer, horologist, and cleric who made major contributions to astronomy and horology while serving as abbot of St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire.
Biography
Richard was bor ...
(1292–1336) – abbot, renowned clockmaker, and one of the initiators of western trigonometry
* (1881–1939) – Spanish astronomer and director of Observatorio del Ebro, wrote ''El Firmamento''
*
Johannes Ruysch
Johannes Ruysch (c. 1460? in Utrecht – 1533 in Cologne), a.k.a. ''Johann Ruijsch'' or ''Giovanni Ruisch'' was an explorer, cartographer, astronomer, manuscript illustrator and painter from the Low Countries who produced a famous map of the world ...
(c. 1460 – 1533) – priest, explorer, cartographer, and astronomer who created the second oldest known printed representation of the New World
S
*
Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri
Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (; 5 September 1667 – 25 October 1733) was an Italian Jesuit priest, scholastic philosopher, and mathematician.
Saccheri was born in Sanremo. He entered the Jesuit order in 1685 and was ordained as a priest in 1694 ...
(1667–1733) – Jesuit mathematician and geometer who was perhaps the first European to write about
Non-Euclidean geometry
In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...
*
Johannes de Sacrobosco
Johannes de Sacrobosco, also written Ioannes de Sacro Bosco, later called John of Holywood or John of Holybush ( 1195 – 1256), was a scholar, monk, and astronomer who taught at the University of Paris.
He wrote a short introduction to the Hi ...
(c. 1195 – c. 1256) – Irish monk and astronomer who wrote the authoritative medieval astronomy text ''Tractatus de Sphaera''; his ''Algorismus'' was the first text to introduce Hindu-Arabic numerals and procedures into the European university curriculum; the lunar crater Sacrobosco is named after him
* Gregoire de Saint-Vincent (1584–1667) – Jesuit mathematician who made important contributions to the study of the hyperbola
*
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa was a Jesuit mathematician who contributed to the understanding of logarithms, particularly as areas under a hyperbola.
Alphonse de Sarasa was born in 1618, in Nieuwpoort in Flanders. In 1632 he was admitted as a no ...
(1618–1667) – Jesuit mathematician who contributed to the understanding of logarithms
*
Christoph Scheiner
Christoph Scheiner SJ (25 July 1573 (or 1575) – 18 June 1650) was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt.
Biography Augsburg/Dillingen: 1591–1605
Scheiner was born in Markt Wald near Mindelheim in Swabia, earlier markgrav ...
(c. 1573 – 1650) – Jesuit physicist, astronomer, and inventor of the pantograph; wrote on a wide range of scientific subjects, including sunspots, leading to a dispute with
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
*
Wilhelm Schmidt (linguist)
Wilhelm Schmidt SVD (February 16, 1868 — February 10, 1954) was a German-Austrian Catholic priest, linguist and ethnologist. He presided over the Fourth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences that was held at Vienn ...
(1868–1954) – Austrian priest and missionary of The Society of the Divine Word; linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist
*
Hermann Schmitz (entomologist)
Hermann Schmitz (12 August 1878 in Elberfeld, Wuppertal – 1 September 1960 in Bad Godesberg) was a German entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera.
His personal collection of data on flies and the literature of flies were loot ...
(1878–1960) – German Jesuit and entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera.
* George Schoener (1864–1941) – priest who became known in the United States as the "Padre of the Roses" for his experiments in rose breeding
*
Gaspar Schott
Gaspar Schott (German: ''Kaspar'' (or ''Caspar'') ''Schott''; Latin: ''Gaspar Schottus''; 5 February 1608 – 22 May 1666) was a German Jesuit and scientist, specializing in the fields of physics, mathematics and natural philosophy, and known fo ...
(1608–1666) – Jesuit physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher who is most widely known for his works on hydraulic and mechanical instruments
*
Franz Paula von Schrank
Franz von Paula Schrank (21 August 1747, in Vornbach – 22 December 1835) was a German priest, botanist and entomologist.
He was ordained as a priest in Vienna in 1784, gaining his doctorate in theology two years later. In 1786 he was named ...
(1747–1835) – priest, botanist, entomologist, and prolific writer
*
Berthold Schwarz
Berthold Schwarz (sometimes spelled Schwartz), also known as Berthold the Black and der Schwartzer, was a legendary German (or in some accounts Danish or Greek) alchemist of the late 14th century, credited with the invention of gunpowder by 15t ...
(c. 14th century) – Franciscan friar and reputed inventor of gunpowder and firearms
*
Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita
Anton (or Antonius) Maria Schyrleus (also Schyrl, Schyrle) of Rheita (1604–1660) ( Antonín Maria Šírek z Reity) was an astronomer and optician. He developed several inverting and erecting eyepieces, and was the maker of Kepler's telescope. ...
(1604–1660) – Capuchin astronomer and optician who built Kepler's telescope
*
George Mary Searle
George Mary Searle (June 27, 1839 – July 7, 1918) was an American astronomer and Catholic priest.
Biography
He discovered the asteroid 55 Pandora in 1858. He also discovered six galaxies. In later life he became a member of the Paulist o ...
(1839–1918) – Paulist astronomer and professor who discovered six galaxies
*
Angelo Secchi
Angelo Secchi (; 28 June 1818 – 26 February 1878) was an Italian Catholic priest, astronomer from the Italian region of Emilia. He was director of the observatory at the Pontifical Gregorian University (then called the Roman College) for 28 y ...
(1818–1878) – Jesuit pioneer in astronomical spectroscopy and one of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the sun is a star; discovered the existence of
solar spicule
In solar physics, a spicule, also known as a fibril or mottle, is a dynamic jet of plasma in the Sun's chromosphere about 300 km in diameter.Quantifying Spicules, Tiago M. D. Pereira, Bart De Pontieu, and Mats Carlsson, ''The Astrophysical ...
s and drew an early map of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
* Alessandro Serpieri (1823–1885) – priest, astronomer, and seismologist who studied shooting stars, and was the first to introduce the concept of the seismic radiant
*
Serafino Serrati Serafino Serrati (18th-century) was an Italians, Italian Benedictine order, Benedictine monk, who also practiced or taught physical sciences. He appears to have lived in the Badia Fiorentina (Florentine Abbey of monks of the order of Monte Cassino). ...
(18th century) – Benedictine monk, attributed the invention of a steamboat, also made observations about aerostatic globes
*
Gerolamo Sersale
Gerolamo Sersale (in Latin, Hieronymus Sirsalis) (Naples, 1584–Naples, 1 December 1654) was an Italian Jesuit astronomer and selenographer. His surname is from a noble Neapolitan family that originated in Sorrento. The town Sersale, a commu ...
(1584–1654) – Jesuit astronomer and selenographer; his map of the moon can be seen in the Naval Observatory of San Fernando; the lunar crater Sirsalis is named after him
* Benedict Sestini (1816–1890) – Jesuit astronomer, mathematician and architect; studied sunspots and eclipses; wrote textbooks on a variety of mathematical subjects
*
René François Walter de Sluse
René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminin ...
(1622–1685) – canon and mathematician with a family of curves named after him
*
Domingo de Soto
Domingo de Soto, O.P. (1494 – 15 November 1560) was a Spanish Dominican priest and Scholastic theologian born in Segovia (Spain), and died in Salamanca (Spain), at the age of 66. He is best known as one of the founders of international law a ...
(1494–1560) – Spanish Dominican priest and professor at the
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is th ...
; in his commentaries to
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
he proposed that free-falling bodies undergo constant acceleration
*
Lazzaro Spallanzani
Lazzaro Spallanzani (; 12 January 1729 – 11 February 1799) was an Italian Catholic priest (for which he was nicknamed Abbé Spallanzani), biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily function ...
(1729–1799) – priest, biologist, and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and essentially discovered echolocation; his research of biogenesis paved the way for the investigations of Louis Pasteur
*
Valentin Stansel
Valentin Stansel or Stanzel (1621 – 18 December 1705) was a Czech Jesuit astronomer who worked in Brazil.
Biography
Valentin Stanzel was born in Olomouc, Moravia. His family were of German minority ethnicity in Moravia. He entered the Socie ...
(1621–1705) – Jesuit astronomer in Brazil, who discovered a comet, which, after accurate positions were made via F. de Gottignies in Goa, became known as the Estancel-Gottignies comet
* Johan Stein (1871–1951) – Jesuit astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory, which he modernized and relocated to Castel Gandolfo; the crater Stein on the far side of the Moon is named after him
*
Nicolas Steno
Niels Steensen ( da, Niels Steensen; Latinized to ''Nicolaus Steno'' or ''Nicolaus Stenonius''; 1 January 1638 – 25 November 1686Joseph Stepling
Joseph Stepling (29 June 1716 − 11 July 1778) was a Bohemian Jesuit priest, astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. Stepling founded the Clementinum Observatory in Prague in 1751 fitted with the best instruments available in that period, some ...
(1716–1778) – Bohemian astronomer, physicist and mathematician who managed the Jesuit observatory in Prague between 1751 and 1778
* Antonio Stoppani (1824–1891) – Italian priest, geologist, and palaeontologist
*
Pope Sylvester II
Pope Sylvester II ( – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Gre ...
(c. 946 – 1003) – prolific scholar who endorsed and promoted Arabic knowledge of arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy in Europe, reintroducing the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era
*
Alexius Sylvius Polonus
Alexius Sylvius Polonus (1593 - c. 1653) was a Polish Jesuit astronomer and maker of astronomical instruments. He adopted the added name of Polonus, meaning "Pole" in Latin.
Sylvius studied at the Jesuit College in Kalisz. The Belgian Jesuit C ...
(1593 – c. 1653) – Jesuit astronomer who studied sunspots and published a work on calendariography
*
Ignacije Szentmartony
Ignacije Szentmartony (October 28, 1718 – April 15, 1793) was a Croatian Jesuit priest, missionary, mathematician, astronomer, explorer and cartographer.
Biography
Szentmartony was born in Kottori, Kingdom of Hungary (today Kotoriba, M ...
(1718–1793) – Croatian Jesuit cartographer and royal mathematician and astronomer, who became a member of the expedition that worked on the rearrangement of the frontiers among colonies in South America, especially Brazil
T
*
André Tacquet
André Tacquet (23 June 1612 Antwerp – 22 December 1660 Antwerp, also referred to by his Latinized name Andrea Tacquet) was a Brabantian mathematician and Jesuit priest. Tacquet adhered to the methods of the geometry of Euclid and the phi ...
(1612–1660) – Jesuit mathematician whose work laid the groundwork for the eventual discovery of calculus
*
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and phil ...
(1881–1955) – Jesuit paleontologist and geologist who took part in the discovery of Peking Man
*
Francesco Lana de Terzi
Francesco Lana de Terzi (1631 in Brescia, Lombardy – 22 February 1687, in Brescia, Lombardy) was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician, naturalist and aeronautics pioneer. Having been professor of physics and mathematics at Brescia, he first ...
(c. 1631 – 1687) – Jesuit referred to as the Father of Aviation for his pioneering efforts; he also developed a blind writing alphabet prior to
Braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
.
*
Theodoric of Freiberg
Theodoric of Freiberg (; – ) was a German member of the Dominican order and a theology, theologian and physicist. He was named Provincial superior, provincial of the Dominican Order in 1293, Albert the Great's old post. He is considered one of t ...
(c. 1250 – c. 1310) – Dominican theologian and physicist who gave the first correct geometrical analysis of the rainbow
*
Joseph Tiefenthaler
Joseph Tiefenthaler (or Tieffenthaler or Tieffentaller) (27 August 1710 – 5 July 1785) was a Jesuit missionary and one of the earliest European geographers to write about India.
Life and travels
Tiefenthaler was born in Bozen, in the county ...
(1710–1785) – Jesuit who was one of the earliest European geographers to write about India
*
Giuseppe Toaldo
Giuseppe Toaldo (Pianezze, 11 November 1719 - Padua, 11 July 1797) was an Italian Catholic priest and physicist.
Biography
Giuseppe Toaldo was born in 1719 in Pianezza near Vicenza.
In his fourteenth year he entered the seminary of Padua, in ...
(1719–1797) – priest and physicist who studied atmospheric electricity and did important work with lightning rods; the asteroid 23685 Toaldo is named for him
* José Torrubia (c. 1700 – 1768) – Franciscan linguist, scientist, collector of fossils and books, and writer on historical, political and religious subjects
*
Franz de Paula Triesnecker
Franz de Paula Triesnecker (2 April 1745 – 29 January 1817) was an Austrian Jesuit astronomer.
Biography
Triesnecker was born in Mallon, Kirchberg am Wagram, Austria. When he was 16 he joined the Society of Jesus. He studied philosophy in Vien ...
(1745–1817) – Jesuit astronomer and director of the Vienna Observatory; published a number of treatises on astronomy and geography; the crater Triesnecker on the Moon is named after him
V
*
Basil Valentine
Basil Valentine is the Anglicised version of the name Basilius Valentinus, ostensibly a 15th-century alchemist, possibly Canon of the Benedictine Priory of Saint Peter in Erfurt, Germany but more likely a pseudonym used by one or several 16th-c ...
– priest chemistry
* Luca Valerio (1552–1618) – Jesuit mathematician who developed ways to find volumes and centers of gravity of solid bodies
* Pierre Varignon (1654–1722) – priest and mathematician whose principle contributions were to statics and mechanics; created a mechanical explanation of gravitation
*
Jacques de Vaucanson
Jacques de Vaucanson (; February 24, 1709 – November 21, 1782) was a French inventor and artist who built the first all-metal lathe which was very important to the Industrial Revolution. The lathe is known as the mother of machine tools, as it ...
(1709–1782) – French Minim friar inventor and artist who was responsible for the creation of impressive and innovative automata and machines such as the first completely automated loom
*
Giovanni Battista Venturi
Giovanni Battista Venturi (11 September 1746 – 10 September 1822) was an Italian physicist, savant, man of letters, diplomat and historian of science. He was the discoverer of the Venturi effect, which was described in 1797 in his ''Recherches E ...
(1746–1822) – priest who discovered the Venturi effect
*
Fausto Veranzio
Fausto Veranzio ( la, Faustus Verantius; hr, Faust Vrančić; Hungarian and Vernacular Latin: ''Verancsics Faustus'';Andrew L. SimonMade in Hungary: Hungarian contributions to universal culture/ref>Ferdinand Verbiest
Father Ferdinand Verbiest (9 October 1623 – 28 January 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in the County of Flanders (now part of Belgium). He is known as Nan Huairen () in C ...
(1623–1688) – Jesuit astronomer and mathematician; designed what some claim to be the first ever self-propelled vehicle, which many claim this as the world's first automobile
*
Francesco de Vico
Father Francesco de Vico (also known as de Vigo, De Vico and even DeVico; 19 May 1805 in Macerata – 15 November 1848 in London) was an Italian astronomer and a Jesuit priest.
Biography
He was educated at the college of Urbino, and became in 183 ...
(1805–1848) – Jesuit astronomer who discovered or co-discovered a number of comets; also made observations of Saturn and the gaps in its rings; the lunar crater De Vico and the asteroid 20103 de Vico are named after him
*
Vincent of Beauvais
Vincent of Beauvais ( la, Vincentius Bellovacensis or ''Vincentius Burgundus''; c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his ''Speculum Maius'' (''Great mirror''), a major work ...
(c. 1190 – c. 1264) – Dominican who wrote the most influential encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
*
Benito Vines
Benito Vines (named Benet Vinyes in Catalan, his mother tongue; 1837–1893) was a Jesuit cleric at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School during the 19th century in Havana, Cuba. He became well known for his studies of hurricanes. He was the Director ...
(1837–1893) – Jesuit meteorologist known as "Father Hurricane" who made the first weather model to predict the trajectory of a hurricane
*
Vitello
Vitello ( pl, Witelon; german: Witelo; – 1280/1314) was a friar, theologian, natural philosopher and an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland.
Name
Vitello's name varies with some sources. In earlier publications he was quo ...
(1230–1280/1314)
*
János Vitéz (archbishop)
János or Janos may refer to:
* János, male Hungarian given name, a variant of John
Places
* Janos Municipality, a municipality of Chihuahua
** Janos, Chihuahua, town in Mexico
** Janos Biosphere Reserve, a nature reserve in Chihuahua
* Jano ...
(c. 1405 – 1472) – Cardinal Archbishop of Esztergom, astronomer, and mathematician
*
Giovanni Serafino Volta
Giovanni Serafino Volta (1764–1842) was an Italian priest, naturalist, and palaeontologist, best known for his studies of fossil fish from Monte Bolca.
Volta was an ''Abate'' (or abbot) and theologian. He was a Canon of the Imperial Basilica ...
(1764–1842) – priest and paleontologist who wrote the first treatise on fossil ichthyology in Italy
W
*
Martin Waldseemüller
Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470 – 16 March 1520) was a German cartographer and humanist scholar. Sometimes known by the Latinized form of his name, Hylacomylus, his work was influential among contemporary cartographers. He and his collaborator ...
(c. 1470 – 1520) – German priest and cartographer who, along with Matthias Ringmann, is credited with the first recorded usage of the word America
*
Erich Wasmann
Erich Wasmann (29 May 1859 in Merano − 27 February 1931 in Valkenburg, Netherlands) was an Austrian (born in South Tyrol) entomologist, specializing in ants and termites, and Jesuit priest. He described the phenomenon known as Wasmannian m ...
(1859–1931) – Austrian entomologist known for
Wasmannian mimicry
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...
*
Godefroy Wendelin
Godfried Wendelen or Govaert Wendelen, Latinized Godefridus Wendelinus, or sometimes Vendelinus and in French-language sources referred to as Godefroy Wendelin (6 June 1580 – 24 October 1667) was an astronomer and Catholic priest from Lièg ...
(1580–1667) – priest and astronomer who recognized that Kepler's third law applied to the satellites of Jupiter; the lunar crater Vendelinus is named in his honor
*
Johannes Werner
Johann(es) Werner ( la, Ioannes Vernerus; February 14, 1468 – May 1522) was a German mathematician. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, where he became a parish priest. His primary work was in astronomy, mathematics, and geography, although he ...
(1468–1522) – priest, mathematician, astronomer, and geographer
*
Witelo
Vitello ( pl, Witelon; german: Witelo; – 1280/1314) was a friar, theologian, natural philosopher and an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland.
Name
Vitello's name varies with some sources. In earlier publications he was quo ...
(c. 1230 – after 1280, before 1314) – friar, physicist, natural philosopher, and mathematician; lunar crater Vitello named in his honor; his ''Perspectiva'' powerfully influenced later scientists, in particular Johannes Kepler
*
Julian Tenison Woods
Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods (15 November 18327 October 1889), commonly referred to as Father Woods, was an English Catholic priest and geologist who served in Australia.D. H. BorchardtTenison-Woods, Julian Edmund (1832–1889) '' Australian Di ...
(1832–1889) – Passionist geologist and mineralogist
*
Theodor Wulf
Theodor Wulf (28 July 1868 – 19 June 1946) was a German physicist and Jesuit priest who was one of the first experimenters to detect excess atmospheric radiation.
Theodor Wulf became a Jesuit priest at the age of 20, before studying physic ...
(1868–1946) – Jesuit physicist who was one of the first experimenters to detect excess atmospheric radiation
*
Franz Xaver von Wulfen
Franz Xaver Freiherr von Wulfen (5 November 1728 – 17 March 1805) was an Austrian botanist, zoologist, mineralogist, alpinist, and Jesuit priest. He is credited with discovering the flowering plants ''Wulfenia carinthiaca'', ''Saxifraga mo ...
(1728–1805) – Jesuit botanist, mineralogist, and alpinist
(1711–1786) – Italian physicist and astronomer, specialist of hydraulics, creator and director of the Observatory San Giovanino in Florence
Z
* John Zahm (1851–1921) – Holy Cross priest and South American explorer
* Giuseppe Zamboni (1776–1846) – priest and physicist who invented the Zamboni pile, an early electric battery similar to the Voltaic pile
*
Francesco Zantedeschi
Francesco Zantedeschi (August 20, 1797 – March 29, 1873) was an Italian Catholic priest and physicist.
Biography
A native of Dolcè, near Verona, Zantedeschi was for some time professor of physics and philosophy in the Liceo of Venice. Lat ...
(1797–1873) – priest who was among the first to recognize the marked absorption by the atmosphere of red, yellow, and green light; published papers on the production of electric currents in closed circuits by the approach and withdrawal of a magnet, thereby anticipating Michael Faraday's classical experiments of 1831
* Thomas Żebrowski (1714–1758) – Jesuit architect, mathematician, and astronomer; instrumental in establishing and funding the
Observatory of Vilnius University
Vilnius University Astronomical Observatory is an astronomical observatory of Vilnius University. It was founded in 1753 by initiative of Thomas Zebrowski. The observatory is the fourth oldest observatory in the Europe. While the observatory is no ...
.
*
Casimir Zeglen
Casimir Zeglen (Polish: Kazimierz Żegleń; 1869 near Tarnopol – before 1927) was a Polish priest who invented a silk bulletproof vest. At the age of 18 he entered the Resurrectionist Order in Lwów (today Lviv, Ukraine). In 1890, he moved to ...
(1869–after 1927) – Polish American priest, invented a type of
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
bulletproof vest
A bulletproof vest, also known as a ballistic vest or a bullet-resistant vest, is an item of body armor that helps absorb the impact and reduce or stop penetration to the torso from firearm-fired projectiles and fragmentation from explosions. T ...
*
Niccolò Zucchi
Niccolò Zucchi (; December 6, 1586 – May 21, 1670) was an Italian Jesuit, astronomer, and physicist.
As an astronomer he may have been the first to see the belts on the planet Jupiter (on May 17, 1630), and reported spots on Mars in 1640.
H ...
(1586–1670) – claimed to have tried to build a
reflecting telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
in 1616 but abandoned the idea (maybe due to the poor quality of the mirror); may have been the first to see the belts on the planet Jupiter (1630)Gregerson, Erik, ''Astronomical Observations: Astronomy and the Study of Deep Space'', Rosen Education Service, 2009, /ref>
*
Godefroy Zumoffen
Reverend Father Godefroy Zumoffen (1848 in France – 1928) was a French Jesuit archaeologist and geologist notable for his work on prehistory in Lebanon.
He is known particularly for pioneering Lebanese archaeology, and for discovering seve ...
(1848–1928) – French Jesuit archaeologist and geologist notable for his work on prehistory in Lebanon
*
Giovanni Battista Zupi
Giovanni Battista Zupi or ''Zupus'' (2 November 1589 – 26 August 1667) was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, and Jesuit priest.
He was born in Catanzaro. In 1639, Giovanni was the first person to discover that the planet Mercury had or ...
(c. 1590 – 1650) – Jesuit astronomer, mathematician, and first person to discover that the planet Mercury had orbital phases; the crater Zupus on the Moon is named after him
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*Barr, Stephen M. ''Modern Physics and Ancient Faith''. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2006.
*Broad, William J. "How the Church aided 'Heretical' Astronomy," ''New York Times'', October 19, 1999.
*Feingold, Mordechai, ed. ''Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002.
*Gilson, Etienne, ''Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970.
*Grant, Edward. ''The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
*Grant, Edward. ''God and Reason in the Middle Ages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
*Hannam, James. ''The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution''. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2011.
*Horn, Stephan Otto, ed. ''Creation and Evolution: A Conference with Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo''. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius, 2008.
*Jaki, Stanley. ''The Savior of Science''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
*Jaki, Stanley. ''Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating University''. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1986.
*Lindberg, David C. ''The Beginnings of Western Science''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
*MacDonnell, Joseph E. ''Jesuit Geometers''. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1989.
*Schönborn, Christoph Cardinal. ''Chance or Purpose?: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith''. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007.
*Spitzer, Robert J. ''New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy''. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010.
*Walsh, James J. ''The Popes and Science''. New York: Fordham University Press, 1911.
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Catholic cleric-scientists
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