Editing Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (section)

===Service in World War I===
Mobilized in December 1914, Teilhard served in [[World War I]] as a stretcher-bearer in the [[French colonial forces|8th Moroccan Rifles]]. Priests were mobilized in the France of the First World War era, and not as military chaplains but as either stretcher-bearers or actual fighting soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clerics in the trenches: French priests in WWI |url=https://archokc.org/news/clerics-in-the-trenches-french-priests-in-wwi |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=Archdiocese of Oklahoma City |language=en}}</ref>  For his valor, he received several citations, including the [[Médaille militaire]] and the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honor]].

During the war, he developed his reflections in his diaries and in letters to his cousin, Marguerite Teillard-Chambon, who later published a collection of them. (See section below)<ref>''Genèse d'une pensée'' (English: "The Making of a Mind")</ref><ref name="letters1" /> He later wrote: "...the war was a meeting ... with the Absolute." In 1916, he wrote his first essay: ''La Vie Cosmique'' (''Cosmic life''), where his scientific and philosophical thought was revealed just as his mystical life. While on leave from the military he pronounced his solemn vows as a Jesuit in [[Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon]] on 26 May 1918. In August 1919, in [[Jersey]], he wrote ''Puissance spirituelle de la Matière'' (''The Spiritual Power of Matter'').

At the [[University of Paris]], Teilhard pursued three unit degrees of natural science: [[geology]], [[botany]], and [[zoology]]. His thesis treated the mammals of the French lower [[Eocene]] and their [[stratigraphy]]. After 1920, he lectured in geology at the [[Catholic Institute of Paris]] and after earning a science doctorate in 1922 became an assistant professor there.