The Big Bang theory of how our world may have come into being is part of the popular culture of our era; but few people know that it was originally put forward by the physicist and Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître.

Lemaître has left us a legacy of intellectual integrity and has opened the way to understanding a little more about the world in which we live: a vast universe which can be approached by an understanding of the minute, and which enables us to overcome the paradoxes of the existence of an original physical moment, moving away from the static vision of the cosmos which preceded it. And this was possible due to his healthy optimism, which had its origin in the mysterious but real God in whom Lemaître placed his faith and towards whom his scientific research is directed.