LETTER OF THE MASTER GENERAL Xlll 



especially as the guardian, leader and master of philosophical 

 and theological studies.* The call of Pope Pius XI, Ite ad 

 Thomam, rings as clear today as it did in 1923 when he 

 addressed Studiorum Ducem to the whole Catholic Church/ 

 In more recent times, a deep need was felt by many for a 

 heavenly patron in the natural sciences. In the solemn Decree 

 Ad Deum of December 16, 1941, the late Pope Pius XII wrote: 

 " It is no wonder, then, that the universities and the more 

 important Catholic colleges, not only in Italy, but in Germany, 

 France, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, as well as in Spain, 

 America and the Philippine Islands, besides numbers of pro- 

 fessors of physics and other natural sciences, at the present time 

 look upon Albert the Great as a beacon shining in a world 

 engulfed in gloom. To make sure of the help of Almighty God in 

 their exacting researches into the world of nature, they eagerly 

 desire to have for their guide and heavenly intercessor him who, 

 even in his own day, when many, puffed up with a hollow 

 science of words, were turning their eyes away from the things 

 of the spirit, has taught us by his example how we should rather 

 mount from the things of earth to the things above." ^ Speaking 

 of the important role played by Our own predecessor. Father 

 Martin S. Gillet, the late Holy Father continues: " It is, there- 

 fore, with sentiments of deepest pleasure that we accede to the 

 wish expressed by the Catholic Academicians at their recent 

 convention in Trier, by universities and by other international 

 gatherings of scientists, and brought to Our notice by the 

 Master General of the Order of Friars Preachers, who, on behalf 

 of himself and of the Order over which he presides, adds a 

 fervent plea that We may deign to constitute Saint Albert the 

 Great the heavenly Patron of students of the natural sciences." ^ 

 The Decree Ad Deum, constituting Albert the heavenly Patron 

 of those who cultivate the natural sciences, was issued on the 



* Cf. Letter of Pius XII to Martin Stanislaus Gillet, March 7, 1942. AAS, XXXIV 

 (1942), 89. 

 ^ AAS, XV (1923), 323. 

 "AAS, XXXIV (1942), 90. 

 ' Ibid. 



