Anselm of Canterbury facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
Anselm depicted in his personal seal
Church	Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Canterbury
See	Canterbury
Appointed	1093
Reign ended	21 April 1109
Predecessor	Lanfranc
Successor	Ralph d'Escures
Other posts	Abbot of Bec
Orders
Consecration	4 December 1093
Personal details
Birth name	Anselmo d'Aosta
Born	c. 1033 Aosta, Arles, Holy Roman Empire
Died	21 April 1109 Canterbury, England
Buried	Canterbury Cathedral
Parents	Gundulph Ermenberga
Occupation	Monk, prior, abbot, archbishop
Sainthood
Feast day	21 April
Venerated in	Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism
Title as Saint	Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church (Doctor Magnificus)
Canonized	1163 by Pope Alexander III
Attributes	His mitre, pallium, and crozier His books A ship, representing the spiritual independence of the Church. Beginning at Bec, Anselm composed dialogues and treatises with a rational and philosophical approach, sometimes causing him to be credited as the founder of Scholasticism. Despite his lack of recognition in this field in his own time, Anselm is now famed as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God and of the satisfaction theory of atonement. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by a bull of Pope Clement XI in 1720.

Anselm of Canterbury ( 1033/4–1109), also called Anselm of Aosta (Italian: Anselmo d'Aosta) after his birthplace and Anselm of Bec (French: Anselme du Bec) after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a saint; his feast day is 21 April.

As archbishop, he defended the church's interests in England amid the Investiture Controversy. For his resistance to the English kings William II and Henry I, he was exiled twice: once from 1097 to 1100 and then from 1105 to 1107. While in exile, he helped guide the Greek bishops of southern Italy to adopt Roman rites at the Council of Bari. He worked for the primacy of Canterbury over the bishops of York and Wales but, though at his death he appeared to have been successful, Pope Paschal II later reversed himself and restored York's independence.

Images for kids

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  A French plaque commemorating the supposed birthplace of Anselm in Aosta. (The identification may be spurious.)

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  Becca di Nona south of Aosta, the site of a supposed mystical vision during Anselm's childhood

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  Bec Abbey in Normandy

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  A cross at Bec Abbey commemorating the connection between it and Canterbury. Lanfranc, Anselm, and Theobald were all priors at Bec before serving as primates over England.

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  A 19th-century portrayal of Anselm being dragged to the cathedral by the English bishops

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  The statue of Anselm on the southwest porch of Canterbury Cathedral, holding a copy of Cur Deus Homo in its right hand

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  Canterbury Cathedral following Ernulf and Conrad's expansions

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  "Anselm Assuming the Pallium in Canterbury Cathedral" from E. M. Wilmot-Buxton's 1915 Anselm

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  The life of St Anselm told in 16 medallions in a stained-glass window in Quimper Cathedral, Brittany, in France

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  The Altar of St Anselm in his chapel at Canterbury Cathedral. It was constructed by English sculptor Stephen Cox from Aosta marble donated by its regional government and consecrated on 21 April 2006 at a ceremony including the Bishop of Aosta and the Abbot of Bec. The location of Anselm's relics, however, remains uncertain.

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  A late 16th-century engraving of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury

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  A mid-17th century engraving of Anselm

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  The illuminated beginning of an 11th-century manuscript of the Monologion

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  A 12th-century illumination from the Meditations of St. Anselm

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  An illuminated archbishop—presumably Anselm—from a 12th-century edition of his Meditations

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  The beginning of the Cur Deus Homo’s prologue, from a 12th-century manuscript held at Lambeth Palace

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  The first page of a 12th-century manuscript of the De Concordia

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  A 12th-century illumination of Eadmer composing Anselm's biography

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  A 19th-century stained-glass window depicting Anselm as archbishop, with his pallium and crozier

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  Sant'Anselmo in Rome, the seat of the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation