VATICAN - Benedict XVI at the General Audience: “may the love of truth and the constant thirst for God, which marked the whole life of St. Anselm, be a stimulus for every Christian to seek without ever tiring an ever more profound union with Christ”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Monk of intense spiritual life, excellent educator of youth, theologian with an extraordinary speculative capacity, wise man of government and intransigent defender of the 'libertas Ecclesiae,' of the liberty of the Church.” These were the words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI at the catechesis at the General Audience on September 23, in which he spoke of Saint Anselm of Aosta, whose 900th anniversary of death is being celebrated this year.
As the Pontiff recalled, Saint Anselm was born in 1033 (or the beginning of 1034) in Aosta, the first-born of a noble family. 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. At age 15, after having a dream in which he sensed that God called him to an important mission, Anselm asked for permission to enter the Benedictine Order, however finding resistance from his father. After a grave illness and the premature death of his mother, Anselm went through a period of moral dissipation and left his home to travel through France in search of new experiences. In Normandy, he traveled to the Benedictine Abbey of Bec, where the prior of the monastery, Lanfranc of Pavia convinced him to return to his studies. His monastic vocation was rekindled and at age 27 he entered the Benedictines and was ordained a priest. When, in 1063, Lanfranc became Abbot of Caen, Anselmo was named Prior of the Monastery of Bec and Master of the cloister school, revealing gifts of a refined educator. “He was very exacting with himself and with others in the monastic observance, but instead of imposing discipline he was determined to have it followed with persuasion,” Benedict XVI said. In February 1079, he was elected Abbot of the Monastery.
When Lanfranc of Pavia, Abbot of Caen, became the new Archbishop of Canterbury, he asked Anselm to instruct the monks and help him in the difficult situation in which his ecclesial community found itself after the Norman invasion. Thus, Anselm “won sympathy and esteem” to such a point that at Lanfranc's death he was elected to replace him in the archbishopric of Canterbury. He received his solemn episcopal consecration in December of 1093.
“Anselm got involved immediately in an energetic struggle for the liberty of the Church, upholding with courage the independence of the spiritual power in respect of the temporal,” the Holy Father said. “He defended the Church from undue interference by political authorities, especially Kings William the Red and Henry I, finding courage and support in the Roman Pontiff, to whom Anselm always demonstrated a courageous and cordial adherence. In 1103 this fidelity cost him the bitterness of exile from his Canterbury see.” Only in 1106 could Anselm return to England, where he was festively welcomed by the clergy and the people. He dedicated the last years of his life above all to the moral formation of the clergy and the spiritual pursuit of theological arguments. He died on April 21, 1109.
In the catechesis, the Pontiff recalled “the mystical soul of this great saint of the Medieval Age, founder of Scholastic Theology, to whom Christian tradition has given the title of "magnificent doctor," because he cultivated an intense desire to deepen his understanding of divine mysteries, fully aware, however, that the journey in search of God is never ended, at least on this earth...He states clearly that whoever attempts to theologize cannot just count on his intelligence, but must cultivate at the same time a profound experience of faith. According to St. Anselm, the activity of a theologian, therefore, develops in three stages: faith, free gift of God that must be received with humility; experience, which consists in the incarnation of the word of God in one's daily life; and lastly true knowledge, which is never the fruit of aseptic thoughts, but of a contemplative intuition.”
Benedict XVI concluded his catechesis with this hope: “may the love of truth and the constant thirst for God, which marked the whole life of St. Anselm, be a stimulus for every Christian to seek without ever tiring an ever more profound union with Christ, Way, Truth and Life. In addition, may the courageous zeal that distinguished his pastoral action, and procured for him misunderstandings, bitterness and finally exile, be an encouragement for pastors, for consecrated persons and for all the faithful to love the Church of Christ, to pray, work and suffer for her, without every abandoning or betraying her.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/9/2009)