St Anselm, the saint we celebrate today, gave his life to God and for the faith, just as different disciples of Christ in the readings we hear in the Acts of the Apostles during the Early Church gave their lives for their faith. Anselm was a Benedictine monk in Normandy, France in the 11th century who was named as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England at the age of 60. Even though Anselm was a monk and abbot, he is now remembered as one of the great theologians of Western Christianity. Anselm is known as the Father of Scholasticism, a method of learning and reason that was employed in philosophy and theology for hundreds of year. Anselm spent many years in exile while serving as Archbishop of Canterbury trying to defend the faith against kings who tried to overrule him and assert their own will. I remember writing a paper on the proofs of God’s existence that Anselm put forth in a course I took in medieval philosophy. Here is a quote from St Anselm that reflects his steadfastness in the faith: “O Lord: my heart is made bitter by its own desolation; sweeten it by Your consolation. I beseech you, O Lord, that having begun in hunger to seek You, I may not finish without partaking of You. I set out famished; let me not return unfed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment