This Week in Christian History: Gregor Mendel Born, Social Gospel Theologian Dies, Second Crusade

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 22, 2018

Gregor Mendel Born - July 22, 1822

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), an Augustinian monk whose scientific research led him to be known as the 'Father of Genetics.' — Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), an Augustinian monk whose scientific research led him to be known as the "Father of Genetics." | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of when Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian monk who is widely known as "the Father of Genetics," was born.

A native of what is now the Czech Republic, Mendel was admitted to the Augustinian Order, a religious order known for placing value on research and education, on Sept. 7, 1843.

"Mendel did not set out to conduct the first well-controlled and brilliantly-designed experiments in genetics. His goal was to create hybrid pea plants and observe the outcome. His observations led to more experiments, which led to unusually prescient conclusions," noted Scitable.

"By simply counting peas and keeping meticulous notes, Mendel established the principles of inheritance, coined the terms dominant and recessive, and was the first to use statistical methods to analyze and predict hereditary information."