The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-02-09
PRIEST ASTRONOMERS.

E. Won Rycken Wilson in a schol-
arly article in "The American Cath
Ole Quarterly Review. on "The
Church and Astronomy" speaks as fol
lows of the work of priests in the field
of science: .. 4
Turning now to the Church's work
in missionary fields, we find that from
earliest times the Catholic mission
airy has been a noted contributor to
scientific record. We have seen how
the early Celtic missionary first gave
the European astronomers knowledge
Of the strange celestial phenomena of
the far north. In like manner, the
priests who accompanied the P0rtIl-
guese nayigators to Goa, India, ~apd
those who sailed westward with Co
lumbus brought us tidings OF the
southern skies.
The Decades of the NeWe Worlde
or West India" by Pietro Martire
rAughiera, an Italian writer, angli-
cized by Richard Eden, Of Mary Tu-
doris time, give us frequent glimpses
Of their work, including a mention Of
the Southern Cross-the double and
multiple nature of whose chief stars
was first recognized by the Jesuits
Fontaney, Noel and Richaud in 1851.
SO the Dominicans and Francis
cans who followed Cortez to Mexico
have given US a detailed account of
the Aztec system of astronomy The
Dominicans andjFathers of Mercy with
Pizarro have done the same for Peru.
Humboldt's account of his voyages
to Latin America are full of illusions
to the scientific labors of these holy
men. Piedrahita, Bishop of Panama,
in his Historic General de las Con-
quistas," Madrid, 1889, gives sim
liar annals.
Our first detailed knowledge" (of
ancient astronomy, writes Profess
sor Forbes, Of Glasgow, was gather
ed by travellers and by the Jesuit
priests. The two principal sources
of knowledge about Chinese astron-
omy were supplied first by Father
Souciet, who in 1929 published OBJ
servations, astronomical etc., drawn
from ancient Chinese books, and lat
er by Father Hoyriac de Malta, who
in 1777-17S5 published the Annals of
the Chinese Empire, translated from
Tong-Kien-Kang Mou.
The French astronomer, Jean Syl-
vain Bailey, obtained the materials
for his Histories of Hindu and ORR
entail ASTRONOMERS" from the tables
and records furnished him by French
missionaries. The monumental re-
searches of Fathers Epping, Strass-
maief and Kugler in the field of Ba-
bylonian astronomy are too. well
known to need quotation. So, too, is
that of Pere Scheil Father Kircher
was the first Psychologist.
But the most systematic astrono-
mical work has been that of the
Jesuit missionaries in connection with
their regularly founded observatories.
Shortly before the year 1900 Pere
Schall, S. j., became tutor to the
young prince, Cham-hi, who when he
mounted the throne of China, sum-
moned the Jesuits to the charge of
the royal department of mathematics.
In 1868, just a year after the founda-
ton of the Paris Observatory, a sis
ter institute was equipped in distant
Peklng, under Father Veribest. Here
Fathers Gouye, Fontaney, Ricci, eau
til and Souciet continued to do adj
mlrable work until the suppression. .
The Lose Observatory, near Shang-
hal, is now in the hands of the Jesu-
It's. It's present director, Father
Cheyalier, recently received the. Log
erot gold medal from the Paris Geo
graphical Society as well as a prize
OF three thousand francs from the
French Academy for astronomical
meteorological work.
incidentally it is the highest in the
world, l,400 meters above.the sea level
Lick Observatory being only 300
meters). The Geographical Society
of Paris some few years since be-
slowed upon its directors, Fathers