Saint Anselm, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor
S. Anselmi Episcopi Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris
Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church, was a monk of profound learning and prayer, often called the father of scholastic theology. A man of gentleness and of unbending fidelity, he sought, in his own phrase, “faith seeking understanding,” and died in the year 1109.
Saint Anselm was born about the year 1033 at Aosta, in the foothills of the Alps. Drawn from his youth to the things of God, he left his native country and came at length to the famed Benedictine abbey of Bec in Normandy, attracted by the renown of its prior, Lanfranc. There he received the monastic habit, and so excelled in holiness and learning that he was chosen first prior and then abbot of Bec, guiding the community with a fatherly tenderness that won him the love of all.
Faith seeking understanding
While still at Bec, Saint Anselm composed the works that secured his place among the great teachers of the Church. In the Monologion and the Proslogion he sought to show how the truths held by faith might be illumined by reason, coining the motto that has ever since been joined to his name: fides quærens intellectum, “faith seeking understanding.” In his treatise Cur Deus Homo — “Why God Became Man” — he pondered with depth and reverence the mystery of the Redemption and the fittingness of the Incarnation. For the wisdom and devotion of these writings, in which learning is always the servant of prayer, the Church venerates him as a Doctor.
Archbishop and confessor
In the year 1093 Saint Anselm was raised, against his own wish, to the See of Canterbury, and so became chief shepherd of the Church in England. His years as archbishop were marked by long and painful conflict in defence of the liberty of the Church, which twice drove him into exile; yet he bore every trial with patience and without bitterness, seeking always the good of souls and the rights of God. Restored at last to his see, he ended his days in peace at Canterbury on the twenty-first of April, 1109. He was later declared a Doctor of the Church, an honour befitting one who united so rare a depth of thought with so deep a humility of heart.
The Collect
O God, who didst bestow upon Thy people blessed Anselm as a minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee; that we who had him for a teacher of life on earth may be worthy to have him for an intercessor in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Deus, qui pópulo tuo ætérnæ salútis beátum Ansélmum minístrum tribuísti: præsta, quǽsumus; ut, quem Doctórem vitæ habúimus in terris, intercessórem habére mereámur in cælis. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
Patronage
Saint Anselm is venerated as a Doctor of the Church and is honoured as a patron of theologians.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar, this feast is observed on the same day, 21 April, but as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Anselm?
In the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 21 April as a Third-Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on the same day as an optional memorial.
Who was Saint Anselm?
He was an Italian-born Benedictine monk who became Abbot of Bec in Normandy and afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. A great theologian and a Doctor of the Church, he died in 1109.
What does “faith seeking understanding” mean?
It translates Saint Anselm’s phrase fides quærens intellectum, which expresses his conviction that one believes first by faith and then seeks, by the right use of reason, to understand more deeply the truths that faith has received. It became a watchword of later Catholic theology.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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