St Thomas's Abbey, Brno
Encyclopedia
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Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
a big austrian church]] located in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
and Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
was its most famous religious leader to date, and between 1856 and 1863 conducted his experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
s on pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
plants in the monastery garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
. His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...
.
The Abbey is unique amongst modern Augustinian foundations because it is not called a priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
, and indeed it has an abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
whereas all other existing Augustinian friaries are led by a prior
Prior
Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...
.
The Augustinians arrived in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
in 1346, and John Henry of Luxemburg
John Henry, Margrave of Moravia
John Henry of Luxembourg, Czech: Jan Jindřich, German: Johann Heinrich , was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death....
(Jan Jindřich Lucemburský), Margrave of Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, began the construction of their original cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
in 1352. In 1653, the Order moved into the Abbey of St. Thomas at today's Moravian Square. At that time the Brno noblewoman Sybilya Polyxena Františka established a musical foundation for the monastery, with paid musical scholars. This was the early beginning of a long and significant musical tradition at the Brno monastery.
Czech composer Pavel Křížkovský
Pavel Krížkovský
Pavel Křížkovský was a Czech choral composer and conductor.Křížkovský was born in Kreuzendorf, Opava District, Austrian Silesia. He was a chorister in a monastery in Opava when young, and studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Olomouc and later in Brno...
also took monastic vows at Brno, teaching liturgical music from 1848 until 1872, and from 1865 he formed an ongoing musical collaboration with the young (lay
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
) composer Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
who had come from his home in Hukvaldy
Hukvaldy
Hukvaldy is a village in the Czech Republic, in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Population: 1,900. It lies 150m below the ruins of the third largest castle in the Czech Republic, Hukvaldy Castle , and is the birthplace of the composer Leoš Janáček and palaeontologist Ferdinand Stoliczka.The castle...
and begun as a choirboy at the monastery.
Mendel Museum
The Augustinian Abbey now hosts the Mendel MuseumMendel Museum of Masaryk University
Mendel Museum has been an institution of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, since 2007. The museum was established in 2002 with the international co-operation of a number of organizations. The principal role in the creation of the museum itself was played by the Austrian society VFG and...
of Genetics dedicated to the founder of genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
. Visits to the Museum include a walk in the garden in which Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
carried out his famous experiments.
See also
- List of Austrian scientists
- Mendelian inheritanceMendelian inheritanceMendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...
- Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry BrnoMendel University of Agriculture and Forestry BrnoMendel University in Brno is located in Brno, Czech Republic. It was founded on 24 July 1919 and now consists of five faculties and one institute - the Faculty of Agronomy, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Business and Economics, Faculty of Horticulture, Faculty of Regional...
(named after Mendel since 1994)