Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God, by Matejko
Posted on 05/22/2010 5:52:31 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
FROMBORK, Poland – Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
His burial in a tomb in the cathedral where he once served as a church canon and doctor indicates how far the church has come in making peace with the scientist whose revolutionary theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun helped usher in the modern scientific age.
Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, died as a little-known astronomer working in a remote part of northern Poland, far from Europe's centers of learning. He had spent years laboring in his free time developing his theory, which was later condemned as heretical by the church because it removed Earth and humanity from their central position in the universe.
His revolutionary model was based on complex mathematical calculations and his naked-eye observations of the heavens because the telescope had not yet been invented.
After his death, his remains rested in an unmarked grave beneath the floor of the cathedral in Frombork, on Poland's Baltic coast, the exact location unknown.
On Saturday, his remains were blessed with holy water by some of Poland's highest-ranking clerics before an honor guard ceremoniously carried his coffin through the imposing red brick cathedral and lowered it back into the same spot where part of his skull and other bones were found in 2005.
A black granite tombstone now identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory, but also a church canon, a cleric ranking below a priest. The tombstone is decorated with a model of the solar system, a golden sun encircled by six of the planets.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God, by Matejko
Well it’s about TIME!
ping
Now he is back perhaps he can revert to his proper name - Kopernik.
Excitate Mojo, Let's play dominoes.
God is right even when the Church is wrong. Too bad He doesn't act to halt the wrong when it would yield the best result.
Yeah, yeah....I know, don't presume to know God.
Why?
If the exact location of his original grave was unknown, then how do they know now they are burying his remains?
You wrote:
“If the exact location of his original grave was unknown, then how do they know now they are burying his remains?”
1) They probably knew an approximate location within the cathedral.
2) His grave may have been marked on the inside or some identifying thing buried with him.
From the complete news report at the Yahoo! News link:
“In a later stage of the investigation, DNA taken from teeth and bones matched that from hairs found in one of his books, leading the scientists to conclude with great probability that they had finally found Copernicus.”
At the urging of a local bishop, scientists began searching in 2004 for the astronomer's remains and eventually turned up a skull and bones of a 70-year-old man — the age Copernicus was when he died. A computer reconstruction made by forensic police based on the skull showed a broken nose and other features that resemble a self-portrait of Copernicus.In a later stage of the investigation, DNA taken from teeth and bones matched that from hairs found in one of his books, leading the scientists to conclude with great probability that they had finally found Copernicus.
An enlargement of the plaque above his casket.
Not exactly. Earth was at the center of the Ptolemaic system, but the center was was least important part. Everything below the orbit of the moon was subject to decay and death. The Earth, at the center, was a vale of tears. But beyond the orbit of the moon were the spheres, each containing a globe of pure eternal light. And beyond the last sphere of the stars was the Empyrean. The Empyrean was the highest heaven, the abode of God and the angels. This was the central place in terms of its importance.
If you put the Sun at the center, that golden orb now becomes the realm of decay and death, the least important part of the universe. At the same time, you then elevate the Earth and man into the heavens, as if man is now a perfect, eternal being living among the angels. And if space now becomes infinite, where is the Empyean? Where is the abode of God?
The problem for the church was not that the Copernican system removed man from his central place in the universe. The problem is that it removed sinful man living in a fallen world and elevated man as a perfect creature living in an eternal heaven.
I thought it was Galileo that said the earth orbits the sun.
(and was persecuted by the church)
From further in the news story:
“The pageantry comes 18 years after the Vatican rehabilitated the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who was persecuted in the Inquisition for carrying the Copernican Revolution forward.”
Thanks for the ping! Kopernik has been at rest for years. It is WE, who feel the guilt, that want him to rest where we can visit him and allow him to give us the blessings of intelligence, who mourn him now.
God knows who he is and has blessed him long before we knew who and what he was.
thanks
I missed that
(if anyone gets pissed at that....here are some Italian Jokes (is vaquero of Italian descent????)... How can you tell Alitalian Airline planes...look for the hair under the wings.... FIAT stands for Fix It Again Tony... IROC stands for Italian Retards out Cruising... )
the Underground translation presented by my classmate was "sono porque queste romani! The Romans are Pigs!
I am going to be sending my cousin Tony to visit you!
Napolitano and Calabrese maybe....
but I am no Roman
tell Tony to leave the gun and bring the cannolis
Doc Holliday: In vino veritas.
Johnny Ringo: Age quod agis.
Doc Holliday: Credat Judaeus apella, non ego.
Johnny Ringo: [pats his gun] Eventus stultorum magister.
Doc Holliday: [gives a Cheshire cat smile] In pace requiescat.
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