Catholic Scientists: Ricardo Cirera and Salse

Ricardo Cirera y Salse (Os de Balaguer, 1864 – Barcelona, 1932) was a Jesuit astronomer who entered the Society of Jesus in 1880. He moved to the Philippines seven years later to work as a scientist at the Manila Meteorological Observatory (Philippines), founded by the Jesuits in 1865. There, between 1888 and 1894, he headed the geomagnetism section, successfully producing the first magnetic map of the Philippine Islands and the coasts of China and Vietnam.

At the end of this period, he returned to Spain to complete his studies in theology. Later, in 1899, he founded the Ebro Observatory in Roquetas, Tarragona (the same town where fellow Jesuit Eduardo Vitoria would go on to found the Ebro Chemical Laboratory).

However, the observatory’s opening was delayed until 1904 because, between 1900 and 1903, he decided to visit the major observatories in Europe so that he could decide on the line of research to pursue, which ultimately became the relationship between solar activity and electrical and magnetic phenomena on Earth—a highly cutting-edge field for its time. A good example of this line of research was the observations of terrestrial magnetism and electricity that Cirera coordinated in 1905 at various locations throughout Spain during the total solar eclipse that occurred that year.

He also launched the magazine in 1914 Iberian, which became a leading publication in the scientific community in Spain and South America.

But his scientific work came to a halt in 1921, when he was appointed procurator general of the Jesuit mission in Bombay, a position he held until 1923. He also helped promote the Society of Jesus, spearheading the creation in 1925 of the Missions Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.

Finally, it is worth noting that Ricardo Cirera was a member of the Barcelona Academy of Sciences and Arts beginning in 1904, as well as of other European scientific institutions, and that in 1914 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso XII.