Day 17 – Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109)

Saint Anselm was born in Aosta, in the Italian Alps, and from an early age he longed for God. As a young man, he entered the Benedictine monastery at Bec in Normandy, where his brilliant mind and gentle spirit quickly drew notice. Eventually, he became prior, then abbot, and later was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, where he guided the English church through turbulent times.

Anselm is remembered above all as a theologian and philosopher who sought to understand faith more deeply. He wrote with the conviction that “faith seeks understanding” — that belief in God is not the end of thought but its beginning. In his Proslogion, he set forth his famous “ontological argument” for God’s existence, reasoning that the very idea of the greatest being implies His reality. In his Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man), he explained how Christ’s atonement satisfies divine justice and restores humanity to God — a teaching that shaped Western theology for centuries.

But Anselm was not merely a scholar; he was a man of prayer. His writings are filled with devotion and longing for God’s presence. He endured exile and conflict with kings who sought to control the church, yet he remained faithful, serving as both pastor and thinker, shepherding God’s people with wisdom.

For us today, Saint Anselm reminds us that faith and reason are not enemies but companions. His life calls us to think deeply about what we believe and to let our thinking become prayer. In him, we see that the pursuit of truth is ultimately the pursuit of God Himself.