What was Anselm like?

In this post, I try to give some idea of what St Anselm was like. The anecdotes I mention are chosen at random, there are many more which are equally interesting and provide insights into different aspects of his character and holiness.

We are very fortunate to have perhaps one of the earliest biographies of a saint written by someone who knew them well and was interested in presenting a factual account of their lives. The Canterbury monk, Eadmer, acted as Anselm’s secretary for much of the period of his archiepiscopacy. He wrote the Vita Anselmi and the Historia Novorum; the first an account of Anselm’s person, the second an account of his role in the political and religious life of England. In the Vita Anselmi, which was translated by Richard Southern as The Life of Saint Anselm in the Oxford Medieval Texts series, Eadmer recounts some fascinating anecdotes about Anselm, which reveal his personality and the nature of his sanctity:

1. How as a young boy Anselm dreamt that he was in God’s presence and that God gave him a piece of the whitest bread, and how when he awoke “like a simple and innocent young boy he believed that he had been in heaven and that he had been fed with the bread of God” (The Life of Saint Anselm, p. 5), and went round telling everyone that he had seen God and eaten the bread of God.
2. How after his mother died he father became more and more aggressive and hostile to him, so that in the end he had to leave home, and crossed the Alps to France. After travelling around he came to Bec in order to attend the school that Lanfranc had founded. In the end he decided to become a monk at Bec rather than at Cluny, because he would be more insignificant, given the dominating person of Lanfranc at Bec.
3. How he became prior at Bec just three years after his monastic profession.
4. How he disciplined himself with fasting, so that “neither hunger nor pleasure in eating were induced by any amount of abstinence” (Life, p. 14).
5. How after spending a full day in prayer, teaching and giving spiritual advice, he would work into the night correcting the manuscripts in the library.
6. How he won over the difficult young monk, Osbern, by his gentleness and discretion as opposed to discipline and blows (the usual fare for miscreants at this time), gradually withdrawing the concessions he made to his youth as Osbern grew in the religious life. [On another occasion he showed another abbot how to treat the boys in his care properly, “So, if you want your boys to be adorned with good habits, you too, besides the pressure of blows, must apply the encouragement and help of fatherly sympathy and gentleness” (Life, p. 38)]
7. How he came to write the Proslogion having become so captivated with the idea of developing a single argument to prove God’s existence that it interfered with his daily life and worse disturbed his attention during the liturgy and the divine office. Convinced that this was a temptation from the devil he tried to banish the thought from his mind, but it pursued him even more, until “one night during matins the grace of God illuminated his heart, the whole matter became clear in his mind, and a great joy and exultation filled his inmost being” (Life, p. 30).
8. How when involved in law suits he would not participate in the intrigue and dishonesty of others. Whilst others planned intrigue Anselm would discourse to anyone who would listen about the Scriptures, and if there was no-one to listen to him, he would sleep. Once the case got under way he would quickly see through the false arguments as if he had never been asleep.
9. How Anselm taught Lanfranc, when the latter was Archbishop of Canterbury, to show greater respect to the traditions of the English Church and to re-institute the feast of St Elphege, which Lanfranc had abolished.
10. How, in Eadmer’s words, “he employed his tongue as an instrument of spiritual meolody during meals”, addressing a question arising from scripture or from a guest. And because he would be so engrossed in the talk Eadmer and other monks would have to ply him with bread to ensure he ate. If he saw anyone enjoying their food, “he would given them a friendly and cheerful look, and, full of pleasure, would raise his right hand a little, blessing them and saying ‘May it do you good [Bene vobis faciat]”. (Life, p. 78).
11. How secular business distressed him so much, that the monks of Christ Church developed a strategy to ask him a question about Scripture when he was overcome by his horror of secular affairs, so that he would quickly return to his normal state.
12. How at Rockingham in 1095 he resisted King William Rufus, the nobility, and all but one of the bishops in recognising Pope Urban II as the rightful pope in spite of threats and blackmail, and was eventually forced into exile, even though the King came to accept Urban as pope. And how he was forced into exile again by Rufus’s successor, King Henry 1, over the ‘lay investiture’ dispute. In spite of his gentle character, Anselm was a fortress in defence of the rights of the Church, and a forerunner of Saint Thomas a Becket. [Becket in fact had a great devotion to Anselm, and was a King's man until he became Archbishop of Canterbury, when he followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Anselm, in protecting the rights of the Church. Before his death Becket tried to set in motion the process for Anselm's canonisation.]
13. How in the last months of his life, although very weak, he had himself carried to the Church to be present at the consecration of the Lord’s Body, “which he venerated with a special devotion and love” (Life, p. 141).
14. How on the Palm Sunday before he died, he wondered whether God would allow him to live a little longer so that he could solve the problem of the origin of the soul, since he did not know whether anyone would solve it after his death.
15. And, finally, how as the Gospel reading for the day (the Wednesday of Holy Week) was being read out to him at the words “that you may eat and drink at my table in the kingdom” (Luke 22:30) his breath began to slow and he was placed on sackcloth and ashes on the floor and died with the community of Christ Church priory around him.

Anselm - a chronological synopsis of his life

1033 - born in Aosta, Italy.

1056 - left Aosta and travelled through France and Normandy.

Arrived in Bec, Normandy, to be student of Lanfranc who was prior of the Benedictine Abbey founded by Herluin, who was still abbot at this time.

In 1060 entered the monastery.

In 1063 when Lanfranc left to become Abbot of another Norman monastery, Anselm was made prior.

In 1078 after the death of Herluin he was elected Abbot.

In the meantime, following Duke William of Normandy’s successful invasion of England in 1066, Lanfranc had been made the first Norman archbishop of Canterbury.

1087 - William the Conqueror died and was succeeded by William Rufus

1089 - Lanfranc died. Rufus kept the see of Canterbury vacant in order to despoil the goods of the Church

1093 - Rufus agreed to the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury – Anselm. Anselm was soon engaged in conflict with Rufus, who refused to accept Urban II as pope and consequently would not let Anselm go to Rome to collect his pallium. All the other bishops apart from one sided with the king. Eventually a compromise was reached; Rufus accepted Urban and the pallium was sent to Anselm from Rome. However relationships were still difficult and although Anselm repeatedly asked for permission to go to Rome, it was refused. In the end Anselm went to Rome without Rufus' permission. Thus began his first exile in 1097,which only ended with the death of William Rufus in 1100.

In exile Anselm was welcomed in Rome by Pope Urban II, who took him with him to the Council of Bari (October 1098) where Anselm defended the Latin addition of the filioque clause to the Creed against the Greek teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, but not the Son. Later Anselm wrote a treatise on the subject, De processione Spiritus Sancti (1102).

1099 - Urban held a council in Rome which addressed the question of lay investiture and excommunicated lay people who ‘appointed’ clergy to church livings and clergy who accepted such appointment. This was to lead to further conflict between Anselm and the future monarch, Henry I.

1100 - Rufus died and Anselm returned to Canterbury at the request of the new king, Henry I. To the surprise of those present, Anselm wept at the news of Rufus’s death, because he had died in a state of sin. He said that “he would much rather that his own body had died than that the king had died in his present state”. (Eaadmer, Vita Anselmi, p.126)


Almost immediately on his return conflict with Henry blew up. Anselm informed Henry of the decisions of the council of Rome, but Henry would not accept them. This went on for 2½ years, until in 1103 Anselm went with a representative of the King to obtain adjudication from the new Pope, Paschal II, on the matter.

The Pope sided with Anselm and when Henry learnt of this he refused to let Anselm return to England “unless he would definitely promise to ignore his submission and obedience to the Apostolic See” (Eadmer, Vita Anselmi, p. 130) on the question of lay investiture. Thus began Anselm’s second exile, during which the King seized control of the possessions of the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

It was only when Henry found out that Anselm was about to excommunicate him that he returned his possessions to him and agreed that he could return. However, Anselm would not return until the issue was properly settled. After a delay of nearly a year, Anselm set off to return to England, but was taken ill and returned to Bec, where he had been monk, prior and abbot. Here on the Feast of the Assumption, 1106, the King came to him and they were reconciled. Although expected to die, Anselm recovered, and returned to England.

He wrote his final work De concordia after his return.

Anselm died in Canterbury on 21 April 1109 on the Wednesday of Holy Week.