Almighty God, who didst raise up thy servant Anselm to teach the Church of his day to understand its faith in thine eternal Being, perfect justice, and saving mercy: Provide thy Church in every age with devout and learned scholars and teachers, that we may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
St Anselm c1033- 21 April 1109. Archbishop of Canterbury 1093 to 1109. Here depicted in stained glass @Nrw_Cathedral pic.twitter.com/ep6ZWWnbSk
— Cathedralverger (@NchCathVerger) April 21, 2015
We clergy, from our seminary days think of Anselm in terms of the ontological argument. But always when we have his feast day I am awed by the fact that he:
a) was born in Aosta, north-West Italy;
b) became a monk at Bec in Normandy, France;
c) from there was sent to be archbishop of Canterbury, England.
Just imagine how slow communication was in Europe in the late 11th century, how difficult travel, how few people knew beyond the next town. Yet already there was a European culture with the Church as its glue, its nexus, with a vision that united. Awesome, as they say in the U. S.