St Anselm of Canterbury: Life, Proslogion, Prayer, Feast

St Anselm (c. 1033-1109) was an Italian monk who became abbot of Bec in Normandy and then archbishop of Canterbury, twice driven into exile for defending the freedom of the Church against the kings of England, and one of the greatest theologians the Church has known: the author of the Proslogion, with its famous proof of God's existence, and of Cur Deus Homo, on why God became man. Pope Clement XI declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1720, and the calendar of 1962 keeps his feast on 21 April, a feast of the third class in white vestments. Here is his life, his thought in plain words, his own most famous prayer, and the prayers of his Mass in Latin and English.

Who was St Anselm of Canterbury?

Anselm was born about 1033 at Aosta, in the Alps on the borders of Italy, the son of Gundulf, a Lombard, and Ermenberga, both of them, as the Roman Breviary says, noble and Catholic. His biographer Eadmer, an English monk who was his disciple for many years, kept a story the saint told of his childhood: living among the mountains, the little boy imagined that heaven lay on their summits, and dreamed one night that he climbed up to the court of God the King, who welcomed him and had him fed with white bread.

At fifteen he asked to enter a monastery, but the abbot refused him for fear of his father's displeasure. The desire faded; he grew careless about religion and lived, says Butler, "a worldly, if not dissipated, life, of which in after years he never ceased to repent". After his mother's death his father's harshness drove him from home, and he spent some three years in Burgundy and France.

Monk, prior and abbot of Bec

The fame of the great teacher Lanfranc drew Anselm to the abbey of Bec, in Normandy. He became Lanfranc's pupil, disciple and friend, and in 1060, at the age of twenty-seven, a monk of the Order of St Benedict at Bec. Three years later, when Lanfranc was made abbot of Caen, Anselm was elected prior. Some of the monks murmured at the choice of so young a stranger; he won them all by patience and gentleness, including a wild young monk named Osbern, whom he led little by little to a strict life and nursed with the utmost tenderness in his last illness.

The longer lessons of his feast in the Breviary, read before the reform of 1960, describe his life at Bec: so great was his abstinence "that by constant fasting almost all taste for food seemed extinguished in him"; the day went in the monastic exercises, in teaching and in answering questions on religion, and he took from his sleep the rest of the night to give it to divine meditation, "which he nourished with a perpetual shower of tears".

It was as prior that he wrote the Monologion and the Proslogion. In 1078 he was elected abbot of Bec. He would gladly have given his whole life to contemplation, but the Breviary notes that his fame for learning and holiness reached kings and bishops, and that Pope St Gregory VII, then hard pressed by persecution, wrote him letters "full of love", commending himself and the Catholic Church to his prayers.

Butler records his wise advice to a neighbouring abbot who lamented the poor success of his efforts with the boys of his monastery: "If you planted a tree in your garden, and bound it on all sides, so that it could not spread out its branches, what kind of a tree would it prove when in after years you gave it room to spread?"

Archbishop of Canterbury

When Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1089, King William Rufus kept the see vacant to seize its revenues. In 1093 the king fell gravely ill and, in fear of death, named Anselm archbishop. Anselm refused with all his strength, pleading his age, his health and his unfitness for public affairs; the bishops forced the pastoral staff into his closed hand and carried him to the church, where they sang the Te Deum. He was consecrated on 4 December 1093.

The king's repentance passed with his illness. He demanded money for his wars, which Anselm refused to pay as the price of his see; he refused to fill vacant abbeys or allow councils to reform the clergy; he tried to have Anselm deposed. Anselm held firm. In October 1097 he left England to lay his cause before Pope Urban II, knowing that his revenues would be seized and that he might never be allowed to return. In Rome the Pope received him with great honour. While resting in a mountain village of Campania he finished Cur Deus Homo.

At the Council of Bari in 1098, before the Pope and the bishops of the Greek rite in southern Italy, Anselm defended, "with countless testimonies of the Scriptures and the holy Fathers", the Catholic faith that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father, the Filioque we sing in the Nicene Creed. The same council would have excommunicated the King of England, had Anselm not begged the Pope to spare him.

On the death of William Rufus, his brother King Henry I recalled him, but the peace was short: Henry demanded that Anselm do him homage and that bishops receive their staff and ring from the king, the "lay investiture" which a Roman council had forbidden. Anselm refused, went into exile a second time, and in the end prevailed: at a royal council the king renounced the investiture of bishops and abbots, and the Church allowed them to do homage for their lands. Henry came to trust him so much that he made him regent of the kingdom during an absence in 1108.

Two more features of his character stand out in Butler. At a national council at Westminster in 1102, Anselm obtained a decree forbidding the practice of selling men "like cattle", making him one of the first to stand against the slave trade. And Eadmer tells how, finding a boy who had tied a thread to a bird's leg and jerked it back whenever it tried to fly, Anselm broke the thread: "the thread breaks, the bird flies away, the boy howls, and the father rejoices".

How did St Anselm die?

Worn out by age and long illness, Anselm died among the monks of Canterbury on 21 April 1109, aged about seventy-six. The Breviary says that he "fell asleep in the Lord", famous for his miracles and his holiness, "especially for his remarkable devotion to the Passion of Our Lord and to the Blessed Virgin His Mother". Butler adds that his body is believed still to lie in Canterbury Cathedral, in the chapel that bears his name.

The Proslogion: faith seeking understanding

Anselm's first title for the Proslogion was Fides quaerens intellectum, "Faith seeking understanding", as he explains in its preface. That phrase sums up his whole method: he does not reason in order to come to believe, but believes, and then seeks to understand what he believes. He says it himself at the end of the first chapter:

Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam et hoc credo: quia "nisi credidero, non intelligam". "For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this too I believe: that unless I believe, I shall not understand."

How did St Anselm describe God? The "ontological argument"

How did St Anselm prove the existence of God? In the second chapter of the Proslogion he starts from a description of God that even the unbeliever can understand: God is "something than which nothing greater can be thought" (aliquid quo nihil maius cogitari possit). He then takes up the words of the Psalm: "The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God" (Psalm xiii. 1, Douay-Rheims).

Even the fool, says Anselm, understands what he hears when we say "that than which nothing greater can be thought", so it exists at least in his mind. But what exists in reality as well as in the mind is greater than what exists in the mind alone. If that than which nothing greater can be thought existed only in the mind, something greater could be thought, which is a contradiction. Therefore it exists in reality too: and this is God.

This is what philosophers call the ontological argument. A monk named Gaunilo objected to it in Anselm's own lifetime, and Anselm answered him. St Thomas Aquinas did not accept it as a proof, preferring to rise to God from the things He has made; but the argument has never ceased to be discussed, and, as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, minds as different as Descartes and Hegel took it up again.

Cur Deus Homo: why God became man

His other great work, Cur Deus Homo ("Why God became man"), asks why the Son of God had to become man and die for us. Sin leaves man with a debt to God greater than all that is not God, a debt he owes and cannot pay; only God could make such a satisfaction, and only man ought to make it: so it had to be made by one who is both God and man (Book II, chapter 6).

The book has shaped the theology of the Redemption ever since, and the Breviary says of all his works that they show him to have drawn "from heaven" the pattern followed by all theologians who teach the sacred sciences by the scholastic method. Butler, for his part, calls him the father of Scholasticism, and judges that as a metaphysician he surpassed all Christian doctors since the days of St Augustine.

A prayer of St Anselm: "Teach me to seek Thee"

The most authentic prayer of St Anselm is his own, from the first chapter of the Proslogion, where the whole work begins as a prayer. Here it is in his Latin, with our own English translation.

From the Proslogion, chapter 1

Doce me quaerere te et ostende te quaerenti; quia nec quaerere te possum, nisi tu doceas, nec invenire, nisi te ostendas. Quaeram te desiderando, desiderem quaerendo. Inveniam amando, amem inveniendo.

Teach me to seek Thee, and show Thyself to me when I seek; for I cannot seek Thee unless Thou teach me, nor find Thee unless Thou show Thyself. Let me seek Thee in desiring Thee, and desire Thee in seeking. Let me find Thee in loving Thee, and love Thee in finding.

Few lines say better how the soul goes to God; our page on how to find God follows the same road.

The prayer of the Mass of St Anselm (Missal of 1962)

The Mass of St Anselm is from the Common of Doctors, In medio Ecclesiae, with the Epistle "Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season" (2 Timothy iv. 1-8) and the Gospel "You are the salt of the earth" (St Matthew v. 13-19). There is a Gloria but no Credo. Here are its three prayers in Latin, as the Missal gives them with the name of St Anselm, and our own English translation.

Collect, 21 April

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 Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

O God, who didst give blessed Anselm to Thy people as a minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we who had him as a teacher of life on earth may deserve to have him as our 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.

Secret

Sancti Ansélmi Pontíficis tui atque Doctóris nobis, Dómine, pia non desit orátio: quæ et múnera nostra concíliet; et tuam nobis indulgéntiam semper obtíneat. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

May the loving prayer of St Anselm, Thy Bishop and Doctor, never fail us, O Lord: may it make our gifts pleasing to Thee, and ever obtain for us Thy pardon. 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.

Postcommunion

Ut nobis, Dómine, tua sacrifícia dent salútem: beátus Ansélmus Póntifex tuus et Doctor egrégius, quǽsumus, precátor accédat. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

That Thy sacrifices may bring us salvation, O Lord, may blessed Anselm, Thy Bishop and illustrious Doctor, we beseech Thee, draw near to plead for us. 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.

The Collect is the Church's prayer to St Anselm: that the one who taught on earth may intercede for us in heaven.

When is the feast day of St Anselm?

The feast of St Anselm is on 21 April, the day of his death. In the calendar of 1962 it is a feast of the third class, in white vestments. Because 21 April falls near Easter, it is kept only in the years when it falls after the Octave of Easter, that is, when Easter falls on or before 13 April (as in 2026 and 2027); should 21 April then fall on a Sunday, the Sunday takes precedence and the saint is at most commemorated. When 21 April falls in Holy Week or within the Octave of Easter, days of the first class that admit no commemoration of a saint, the feast is not kept that year. When it is kept, it falls in Paschaltide, and the Mass takes its Easter form with Alleluia.

You will find each year's calendar in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962, and St Anselm among the saints of the year in our guide to the Catholic saints.

What is St Anselm the patron saint of?

The traditional books assign St Anselm no particular patronage, and we will not invent one. He is honoured above all as a Doctor of the Church, the teacher of those who seek to understand their faith, at Aosta, his birthplace, at Bec, and at Canterbury, his see. The Benedictine Order venerates him as one of its glories, and many schools, churches and Benedictine houses bear his name.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Anselm?

An Italian-born Benedictine monk (c. 1033-1109), prior and abbot of Bec in Normandy, archbishop of Canterbury from 1093, defender of the freedom of the Church against two kings of England, and the author of the Proslogion and Cur Deus Homo. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1720.

What is St Anselm's ontological argument?

His proof of God in chapter 2 of the Proslogion: God is "that than which nothing greater can be thought"; what exists in reality is greater than what exists only in the mind; therefore that than which nothing greater can be thought must exist in reality, otherwise something greater could be thought.

What does "faith seeking understanding" mean?

Fides quaerens intellectum was Anselm's first title for the Proslogion. It means that the believer, starting from faith, uses reason to understand more deeply what he already believes: "I believe in order to understand".

Was St Anselm a Benedictine?

Yes. He made his profession as a monk of the Order of St Benedict at the abbey of Bec in 1060, and remained a monk all his life, as prior, abbot and archbishop.

How did St Anselm die?

Peacefully, of age and long illness, among the monks of Canterbury, on 21 April 1109.

Where is St Anselm buried?

At Canterbury: Butler writes that his body is believed still to lie in the cathedral, in the chapel known as St Anselm's, on the south-east side of the high altar.

When was St Anselm canonized?

The sources do not agree on whether a formal canonization ever took place: Butler writes that he was "never formally canonized". He was venerated as a saint in the Middle Ages, Dante places him among the spirits of light in the sphere of the sun in his Paradiso, and in 1720 Clement XI declared him a Doctor of the Church.

The Iter Fidei app carries the traditional calendar of 1962, the Roman Missal with the prayers of each day and the Breviary, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 21 April (St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church). St Anselm, Proslogion, preface and chapters 1-2; Cur Deus Homo, Book II, chapter 6. Roman Breviary, 21 April (St Anselm), lessons in their full form before 1960, and the single contracted lesson of 1960. Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 21 April, and Common of Doctors. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "St. Anselm". Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, Psalm xiii. 1; 2 Timothy iv; St Matthew v. 13.