Saint Anselm (b. 1033) could have had the good life. He was born to a noble family and was well educated. He inherited wealth. Yet, he felt the call of the Lord and at 27 years made a commitment to the Benedictine Order. He became a scholar, builder, administrator and a leader of the Church as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Above all, he remained influenced by the formation he received from his mother and in turn was instrumental in the formation of young priests. His was a remarkable life in servitude of the Lord as a teacher, pastor and theologian, for which he is a Doctor of the Church. EWTN has a lengthy biography here.
However, a modern scholar happened to elaborate on Saint Anselm’s life today, more poignantly and significantly than can an entire catalogue of biographies. Here’s the text of the English translation of Pope Benedict’s General Audience today, courtesy of ZENIT, with an excerpt below:
Saint Anselm: Teacher, Pastor, Theologian
St. Anselm was born in 1033 (or the beginning of 1034) in Aosta, the firstborn of a noble family. His father was a crude man, dedicated to the pleasures of life and a spendthrift of his goods; his mother, on the other hand, was a woman of superior customs and profound religiosity (cf. Eadmero, Vita s. Anselmi, PL 159, col 49). It was his mother who took care of the first human and religious formation of her son, whom she later entrusted to the Benedictines of a priory of Aosta. Anselm, who from his childhood — as his biographer recounts — imagined the dwelling of the good God to be among the high and snow clad summits of the Alps, dreamed one night that he was invited to this splendid palace by God himself, who entertained him affably for a good while and at the end offered him to eat “a very white bread” (ibid., col 51).
This dream left him the conviction of being called to fulfill a high mission. At the age of 15, he asked to be admitted to the Benedictine Order, but his father opposed him with all his authority and did not even give in when his son, gravely ill, and sensing he was close to death, implored the religious habit as his last consolation.
