(Sweden, end of the XII century – Cologne, 1280)

He was probably born to a military family at Lauingen, near of Bollstädt on the Danube in Swabia, between 1193 and 1206.
As a young man, he was sent to study at the University of Padova where his uncle lived. However, Padua was also very famous at the time for its culture of liberal arts. Here, in 1223, he became a member of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Order. In 1228, he began teaching theology in Cologne, Hildesheim, Freiburg, Regensburg and Strasbourg and, in 1245, he was awarded the title of magister and graduate in Paris.
In 1248, he supervised the order’s new Studium generale in Cologne, where Thomas Aquinas was also one of his students. He oversaw the Order in Germany between 1254 and 1257 and, in 1256, he defended the Mendicant Orders against William of Saint-Amour in front of the Pope in Anagni. He took up teaching again in Cologne, working with other brothers, including St. Thomas, to draw up the Ratio studiorum dominicana.
In 1260, Alexander IV named him bishop of Regensburg and he dedicated himself to reforming the diocese, reorganising parishes and monasteries and helping to give new impetus to charity work. After two years, he went back to teach at Cologne’s Studium generale. He took part in the Council of Lyons in 1274 and, in 1276-77, he defended Aristotelianism and the St. Thomas doctrine in Paris. He died in Cologne in 1280.
In the papal bull “In thesaurus sapientiae” dated 1931, Pope Pius XI proclaimed him a saint and doctor of the church and, in 1941, Pope Pius XII went on to name him the patron of natural science enthusiasts.
St. Albertus Magnus wrote about philosophy, natural sciences, theology, biology and psychology, but also completed works on construction and sermons.

Approfondimenti:
Università, la scienza non appartiene (più) solo a Dio (Il Bo live)