Two hundred years ago, on Saturday 20 July 1822, Anton and Rosine Mendel celebrated the birth of their second child, Johann. Growing up on the family farm in Heinzendorf bei Odrau in the Austrian Empire (now Hynčice in the Czech Republic), Johann developed a keen interest in gardening and beekeeping.
Soon after his eighteenth birthday, Johann enrolled at the University of Olmutz to study philosophy and physics. But, his time at university was interrupted by illness and financial worries. He decided to become a monk because, in his own words, it spared him the ‘perpetual anxiety about a means of livelihood’. It was when he joined the Order of Saint Augustine in Brunn (now Brno) in 1843 that he was given the name Gregor. Four years later, Gregor was ordained as a priest.
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