Gregor Mendel’s sister Theresia helped finance his education by giving him her dowry. The sacrifice mattered because Mendel grew up in a farming family with limited financial resources, yet he showed exceptional academic ability and wanted to continue studying beyond local schooling.
Mendel attended the gymnasium in Troppau and later studied philosophy and physics at the University of Olomouc from 1840 to 1843. Financial hardship repeatedly interrupted his education. When Theresia surrendered her dowry to support him, she helped make his continued academic path possible. Mendel later returned the favor by helping support her three sons; two of them became doctors.
A frequent mix-up concerns Mendel’s sisters. Veronika was his older sister, while Theresia was the younger sister associated with financing his education. Mendel eventually entered the Augustinian Order partly because monastic life provided a practical route to education and relieved him from the constant anxiety of finding a livelihood.