Nicolas Steno, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Nicolas Steno

Pioneer in anatomy and geology, bishop

Date of Birth: 11-Jan-1638

Place of Birth: Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark

Date of Death: 05-Dec-1686

Profession: physician, Catholic priest, geologist, paleontologist, cleric, anatomist, crystallographer

Nationality: Denmark

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About Nicolas Steno

  • Nicolas Steno (Danish: Niels Steensen; Latinized to Nicolaus Steno or Nicolaus Stenonius; 1 January 1638 – 25 November 1686 [NS: 11 January 1638 – 5 December 1686]) was a Danish scientist, a pioneer in both anatomy and geology who became a Catholic bishop in his later years.
  • Steno was trained in the classical texts on science; however, by 1659 he seriously questioned accepted knowledge of the natural world.
  • Importantly he questioned explanations for tear production, the idea that fossils grew in the ground and explanations of rock formation.
  • His investigations and his subsequent conclusions on fossils and rock formation have led scholars to consider him one of the founders of modern stratigraphy and modern geology.
  • The importance of Steno's foundational contributions to geology may be gauged from the fact that half of the twenty papers in a recent miscellany volume on The Revolution in Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment focus on Steno, the "preeminent Baroque polymath and founder of modern geologic thought".Born to a Lutheran family, Steno converted to Catholicism in 1667.
  • After his conversion, his interest for natural sciences rapidly waned giving way to his interest in theology.
  • At the beginning of 1675, he decided to become a priest.
  • Four months after, he was ordained in the Catholic clergy in Easter 1675.
  • As a clergyman, he was later appointed Vicar Apostolic of Nordic Missions and Titular Bishop of Titopolis by Pope Innocent XI.
  • Steno played an active role in the Counter-Reformation in Northern Germany.
  • The canonization process for him was begun in 1938.
  • Pope John Paul II beatified Steno in 1988.

Read more at Wikipedia

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