Editing Gregor Mendel (section)

== Early life and education ==
Mendel was born into a [[Sudeten Germans|German-speaking]] family in [[Hynčice (Vražné)|Heinzendorf bei Odrau]],<ref name="card"/> in [[Austrian Silesia|Silesia]], [[Austrian Empire]] (now Hynčice in the [[Czech Republic]]).<ref name=":4" /> He was the son of Anton and Rosine (Schwirtlich) Mendel and had one older sister, Veronika, and one younger, Theresia. They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Mendel family for at least 130 years<ref>Gregor Mendel, Alain F. Corcos, Floyd V. Monaghan, Maria C. Weber "Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Hybrids: A Guided Study", Rutgers University Press, 1993.</ref> (the house where Mendel was born is now a museum devoted to Mendel).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mendel-rodnydum.vrazne.cz/index.php?lang=cs |title=Úvod – Rodný dům Johanna Gregora Mendela}}</ref> During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener and studied [[beekeeping]]. As a young man, he attended [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] in [[Troppau]] ({{langx|cs|Opava}}). Due to illness, he had to take four months off during his gymnasium studies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Camarena |first=Belia |date=March 20, 2018 |title=Gregor Mendel, the Father of Modern Genetics: Brilliant Scientist or Complete Failure? |url=https://stmuscholars.org/gregor-mendel-the-father-of-modern-genetics-brilliant-scientist-or-complete-failure/ |access-date=10 March 2023 |website=StMU Research Scholars}}</ref> From 1840 to 1843, he studied practical and theoretical philosophy and physics at the Philosophical Institute of the [[Palacký University Olomouc|University of Olomouc]] ({{langx|de|Olmütz}}), taking another year off because of illness. He also struggled financially to pay for his studies, and Theresia gave him her dowry. Later he helped support her three sons, two of whom became doctors.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Silvia |last=Eckert-Wagner |year=2004 |title=Mendel und seine Erben: Eine Spurensuche |trans-title=Mendel and His Heirs: A search for traces |language=de |location=Norderstedt |publisher=Books on Demand |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3sU00yjUKfcC&pg=PA113 113] |isbn=978-3-8334-1706-1 }}</ref>

He became a monk partly because it enabled him to obtain an education without paying for it himself.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Henig|first=Robin Marantz|url=https://archive.org/details/monkingardenlost00heni|title=The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics|date=2000|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=0-395-97765-7|location=Boston|pages=19–21|oclc=43648512}}</ref> As the son of a struggling farmer, the monastic life, in his words, spared him the "perpetual anxiety about a means of livelihood."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Iltis|first=Hugo|date=1943|title=Gregor Mendel and His Work|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/17803|journal=The Scientific Monthly|volume=56|issue=5|pages=414–423|jstor=17803|bibcode=1943SciMo..56..414I}}</ref> Born Johann Mendel, he was given the name "Gregor" ({{lang|cs|Řehoř}} in Czech)<ref name="card" /> when he joined the [[Order of Saint Augustine]].{{sfn|Henig|2000|p=24}}