Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Theodore Augustine Mann

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

English naturalist and historian, b. in Yorkshire, 22 June, 1735; d. at Prague in Bohemia, 23 Feb., 1809. Little is known of his education except that he seems to have imbibed deistic ideas in his youth. He left England about 1754 and went to Paris. Here the study of Rossuet's "Discours sur l'histoire universelle" exerted a profound influence upon him, and in 1756 he was received into the Catholic Church by the Archbishop of Paris. Upon the outbreak of the war between France and England in the same year, he went to Spain, where he enlisted in a regiment of dragoons, and afterwards became a student at the military academy of Barcelona. He soon abandoned, however, the idea of a military career, and went to Belgium, where he entered the Chartreuse monastery at Nieuport, the sole English house of the order. After his profession his leisure was devoted to scientific study, and his memoir "Théorie des causes physiques des mouvements des corps célestes d'après les principes de Newton", won for him membership in the Imperial Academy of Brussels. He became prior of his monastery in 1764, but left the order thirteen years later, after having obtained a Bull of secularization and also the privilege of possessing a benefice. He took up his residence at Brussels and received a prebend in the Chapter of Notre-Dame de Courtrai. In 1787 he was chosen perpetual secretary of the Brussels Academy, and carried on numerous meteorological observations under its auspices. The invasion of the French in 1794 forced him to leave Belgium, and, after travelling in Germany and England, he finally settled at Prague, where he continued his literary labours until his death. Mann was a laborious student and a versatile writer. He is said to have refused the Bishopric of Antwerp offered him by Emperor Joseph II, rather than abandon his favourite studies.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

His principal literary works, conspicuous for their erudition, were: "Mémoire et lettres sur l'étude de la langue grecque" (Brussels, 1781); "Mémoire sur la conservation et le commerce des grains" (Mechlin, 1764); "Abrégé de l'histoire ecclesiastique, civile, et naturelle de la ville de Bruxelles et de ses environs" (Brussels, 1785), in collaboration with Foppens; "Histoire du règne de Marie Thérèse" (Brussels, 1781; 2nd ed., 1786); "Recueil de mémoires sur les grandes gelées et leurs effets" (Ghent, 1792); "Principes métaphysiques des êtres et des connaissances" (Vienna, 1807), and numerous papers in the "Mémoires" of the Brussels Academy. He was also the translator of an English work, which was published under the title "Dictionnaire des Jardiniers et des Cultivateurs" (Brussels, 1786-9).

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Prayer of the Day logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.