One stereotype of Christian clergy is that they're just a bunch of anti-intellectual fanatics.

But in today's episode, I'll show you five priest scientists whose discoveries from the smallest parts of our bodies to the biggest mysteries of the universe helped create the modern world.

Number five, Father Casimir Zeglin and the Bulletproof Vest.

In 1893, Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison III was assassinated, and Father

Casimir Zeglin, the Chicago pastor of the largest Polish Catholic church in the U.S., wanted to do

something. So he spent the next two years experimenting on bullet-resistant materials. Now,

criminals from as early as the 1880s used bulky plates under their coats to protect them from gunfire.

In 1894, one outlaw named Jim the Killer Miller wore a heavy metal plate under his coat that protected him from being shot six times at Point Blank Range by Sheriff Bud Fraser.

Did Miller get this idea from Marty McFly's Hill Valley duel with Buford Mad Dog Tannen that took place

just nine years earlier?

No way. We got you. Not a chance. Not this time.

Father Zegland's early designs resembled these bulky plates, which were good for outlaws who were up

to no good, but not good for people like mayors who couldn't walk around all day wearing heavy

body armor. However, in 1881,

Dr. George Goodfellow examined a slaying gunfighter and noticed one of the bullets in his body had

been stopped by a silk handkerchief. In 1887, Goodfellow published an article called

Impenetrability of Silk to Bullets, but didn't apply the research to any kind of device. However, Father

Zeglin used the research to create a vest, and he partnered with another Polish man, Jan

Syspenik, to refine the fabric. What made the vest work wasn't just the use of silk, but the very

particular way it was sewn together to create a structure that could absorb the impact of a bullet.

A 1902 article records the following about Father Zeglin's work.

The Reverend Mr. Zeglin himself submitted to a test in Chicago.

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