April 21 is the feast of St. Anselm (1033-1109), archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church. Born at Aosta, in the kingdom of Burgundy, he entered the Benedictine abbey of Bec in Normandy in 1060, where he studied under and succeeded Lanfranc as prior. He became abbot of Bec in 1078, and was made archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 by William Rufus.
Anselm is the father of scholasticism. His Proslogion (1077-1078) contains the "ontological argument" for the existence of God — the proof from the concept of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" — and his Cur Deus Homo (1098) is the first systematic treatise on the Incarnation and the Atonement. His motto fides quaerens intellectum — "faith seeking understanding" — became the motto of Catholic theology. He was exiled twice by the English kings William Rufus and Henry I, in defence of the Church's freedom.
Anselm died at Canterbury in 1109. His body lies in the cathedral, in a chapel behind the high altar. He was canonized in 1494 and proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1720 by Pope Clement XI. From Bec, where he was a monk, to Canterbury, where he was archbishop, the April 21 feast is the feast of the monk who became the father of scholastic theology.
