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up with the insecurity of making his own way. “Therefore, after having finished his philosophical studies, he felt himself compelled to step into a station of life which would free him from the bitter struggle for existence.” Johann followed the recommendation his father had made in 1841 and decided to enter the priesthood. “His circumstances decided his vocational choice,” he wrote. On July 14, 1843, the professor of physics at Olomouc University, Friedrich Franz, wrote to a colleague at Brno (then called Brünn), the capital city of Moravia. He was answering an inquiry about suitable candidates for the priesthood. He wrote that he could recommend only one. “This is Johann Mendel, born at Heinzendorf in Silesia. During the two year course in philosophy he has had, almost invariably, the most unexceptionable reports and is a young man of very solid character.”

Olomouc was an important religious center in the Austrian Empire in the 1840s, when Mendel lived and studied at the university there. However, despite its ties to the German-speaking imperial and religious authorities, most residents of the city spoke the Czech language.

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