Bl Nicolas Steno: a fossils pioneer

by Letters Editor · November 20, 2014

Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

Your edition of November 5 was full of very interesting reading. The editorial highlights the fact that many pioneers in the field of science were either Catholic clergy or laity. It is interesting to note that Bl Nicolas Steno was originally a Lutheran.

Niels Stensen (Photo: Wikipedia)

Living in Denmark, Bl Steno first studied anatomy, at which he excelled. He then left Denmark and ended up in Florence where he was appointed physician to the duke of Florence. Whilst dissecting a shark, he realised what fossilised shark�s teeth actually were, not �tongue stones� that had fallen from the sky, as people thought in that era, the 17th century.

From a palaeontological and geological perspective, people in that era could not understand how sea shells could be found on mountain tops, many of them fossilised and encased in rocks. Steno solved the problem by realising firstly that mountains had not always been mountains, and secondly that residue had covered the sea shells over time and then solidified.

Bl Steno then converted to Catholicism. He later gave up his scientific studies and entered the priesthood. He was appointed first vicar apostolic for the Nordic Missions and then auxiliary bishop of M�nster, Germany, living a very ascetic life. He was unhappy being bishop and requested being given normal duties as a parish priest. This was duly granted and he died shortly after at the age of 48.

Bl Steno�s cause for sainthood was brought about in 1938 and he was beatified by Pope John-Paul II in 1988.