St. Anselm | |
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Archbishop of Canterbury | |
Anselm depicted in his personal seal
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Appointed | 1093 |
Term ended | 21 April 1109 |
Predecessor | Lanfranc |
Successor | Ralph d'Escures |
Other posts | Abbot of Bec |
Orders | |
Consecration | 4 December 1093 |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Anselmo d'Aosta |
Born |
c. 1033 Aosta, Arles, HRE |
Died | 21 April 1109 Canterbury, England |
Buried | Canterbury Cathedral |
Parents | Gundulph Ermenberga |
Occupation | Monk, prior, abbot, archbishop |
Sainthood | |
Feast day | 21 April |
Canonized | 1163 by Pope Alexander III |
Attributes |
His mitre, pallium, and crozier His books A ship, representing the spiritual independence of the Church. |
Anselm of Canterbury (Latin: Anselmus Cantuariensis; c. 1033 – 21 April 1109), also called Anselm of Aosta (Italian: Anselmo d'Aosta) after his birthplace and Anselm of Bec (French: Anselme du Bec) after his monastery, was a Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a saint; his feast day is 21 April.
Beginning at Bec, Anselm composed dialogues and treatises with a rational and philosophical approach, sometimes causing him to be credited as the founder of Scholasticism. Despite his lack of recognition in this field in his own time, Anselm is now famed as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God and of the satisfaction theory of atonement. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by a bull of Pope Clement XI in 1720.