Saint Anselm. Archbishop of Canterbury.
19th-Century English Stained-Glass Window.
Source: http://www.arspublik.com/
public-domain-images-saint-anselm/
Author: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Paschal Time.
Volume 8.
Book II.
A Monk, a Bishop, a Doctor of The Church — such was the Saint whose Feast comes to gladden us on this twenty-first day of April.
He was a Martyr, also, at least in desire, and, we may add, in merit, too — for he did enough to earn the glorious palm.
When we think of Anselm, we picture to ourselves a man in whom are combined the humility and meekness of the Cloister with the zeal and courage of the Episcopal dignity; a man who was both a sage and a Saint; a man whom it was impossible not to love and respect.
He left his native Country of Piedmont [Editor: Literally, “the foot of the mountain”] for the Monastery of Bec, France, where he became a Benedictine Monk.
Being elected Superior, he realised in himself the type of an Abbot, as drawn by Saint Benedict in his Rule: “He that is made Abbot”, says the holy Patriarch, “should study to give help rather than to give commands”.
We read that the love entertained for Anselm by his brethren was beyond description. His whole time was devoted to them, either in giving them spiritual direction, or in communicating to them his sublime knowledge of the sacred sciences.
After governing them for several years, he was taken from them, and compelled to accept the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a worthy successor of Augustine, Dunstan, Elphege, and Lanfranc; and by his own noble example of courage, he prepared the way for the glorious Martyr, Thomas [Editor: Thomas Becket], who succeeded him in less than a Century.
As Bishop, his whole life was spent in fighting for the liberty of The Church. Though gentle as a Lamb by nature, he was all energy for this great cause. He used to say: “Christ would not have his Spouse [Editor: The Church] be a slave; there is nothing in this World that God loves more than the liberty of His Church”.
There was a time when The Son of God allowed Himself to be fettered with bonds in order that He might loosen us from the chains of our sins; but, now that He has risen in triumph from the dead, He wills that His Spouse should be, like Himself, free.
She cannot otherwise exercise the ministry of salvation confided to her by her Divine Lord; and yet there is scarcely a single hundred years of her existence in which she has not had to fight for this holy liberty.
The rulers of this Earth, with very few exceptions, have ever been jealous of her influence, and have sought to lessen it by every possible means. In our own times, there are numbers of her children who do not even know that she has any rights or privileges; they would be at a loss to understand you, if you told them that she is the Spouse of Christ, and, therefore, a queen.
They think it quite enough for her, if she enjoy the same amount of freedom and toleration as the sects she condemns; and they cannot see how, under such conditions as these, The Church is not the kingdom He wished her to be, but a mere slave.
Saint Anselm would have abominated all such theories as these; so does every true Catholic. He is not driven into disloyalty to The Church by the high-sounding words “progress” and “modern society”; he knows that there is nothing on Earth equal to The Church; and when he sees the World convulsed by revolutions, he knows that all comes from The Church having been deprived of her rights.
Anselm was not only the zealous and heroic defender of the rights and privileges of The Church; he was also a light to men by his learning. The contemplation of revealed truths was his delight. He studied them in their bearings one upon the other, and his writings occupy a distinguished place in the treatises of Catholic Theology.
God had Blessed him with extraordinary talent. Amidst all the troubles and anxieties and occupations of his various duties, he found time for study. Even when passing from place to place, as an exile, he was intent on the meditation of the mysteries of Religion, thus preparing those sublime reflections which he has left us on the Articles of our Faith.
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