Feast day: April 21

St. Anselm

Archbishop & Doctor of the Church · 1033–1109

Patron of Theologians

Archbishop of Canterbury and father of Scholasticism, famous for 'faith seeking understanding' and the ontological argument for God.

Anselm was born about 1033 at Aosta in northern Italy and, after a restless youth and the death of his pious mother, made his way across the Alps to Normandy, drawn by the fame of the teacher Lanfranc at the monastery of Bec. There he found his vocation, became a monk, and in time succeeded Lanfranc as prior and then abbot, winning a reputation across Europe for holiness, wisdom, and gentleness of soul.

At Bec he wrote the works that made him the father of Scholastic theology. He sought, as he put it, not to believe in order that he might understand, but to understand what he already believed — 'faith seeking understanding.' In the 'Proslogion' he set out his famous argument that God, as 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived,' must truly exist, an argument that philosophers have debated ever since.

His most influential book, 'Cur Deus Homo' ('Why God Became Man'), offered a profound explanation of the Incarnation and the redemption: that the infinite offense of sin required an infinite satisfaction which only God-made-man could offer, and so Christ's self-offering reconciled humanity to God. It shaped Western thinking about salvation for centuries.

Called from the cloister he loved to become Archbishop of Canterbury, he spent his last years in painful conflict with two English kings over the freedom of the Church from royal control, and twice went into exile rather than yield. He died at Canterbury in 1109, and was later declared a Doctor of the Church — a saint admired even by those who do not share his faith, for the beauty and rigor of his mind.

He twice went into exile rather than let kings control the Church — a philosopher with a spine.

“I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.”
— St. Anselm

Image: Anselm_of_Canterbury,_seal.jpg: The original uploader was Srnec at English Wikipedia. derivative work: MLWatts (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/01546a.htm