Saturday 22 April 2017

# Saints

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

The 21st of April is the feast day of Saint Anselm of Canterbury.

Saint Anselm lived between 1033 and 1109, he was borned to a noble family in the Lombardy region of Italy. After the example of his mother, he was led to great faith and enquired to enter the monastery at the young age of 15. The abbot refused him entry due to Anselm's stern father. He then left home and settled in Normandy to study after his mother's death. He studied under the famed monk Lanfranc. When his father died, Anselm became a Benedictine monk at the age of 27. He became a teacher in the abbey's school and the prior of the monastery. He was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in England and corrected abuses against the Church at the hands of the English kings. He was banished twice from the island while he was appealing to Rome for assistance and in both times he returned to Canterbury to continue his duties until his death. He continued his monastic lifestyle and intellectual pursuits as archbishop. He composed philosophical and theological treatises, prayers and meditations and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Cement XI in 1720.

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