In the life of Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109) we see integration in the fusion of scholarship and sanctity.

St. Anselm of Canterbury:

 Scholarship Rooted in Prayer

by John P. Bequette

When we study the history of the Church, we encounter what many have called the res Catholica, the “Catholic thing.” We use the non-descript Latin res quite deliberately in order to evoke within the reader a sense of enigma, of irreducible mystery. The saints of the Church are the strongest representatives of this res Catholica, integrating within their lives multiple strains of this mystery. In the life of Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109) we see this integration in the fusion of scholarship and sanctity.

Anselm was born to a noble family in Aosta, Italy. As a young man he traveled to France, where he entered the renowned abbey of Bec in 1060. In the early Middle Ages, before the emergence of the urban universities, monasteries and cathedral schools were centers of scholarship and learning. The monastery fostered its own type of intellectual life in conjunction with the primary monastic vocation of prayer. At the center of monastic intellectual life was Lectio Divina, the prayerful, meditative reading of Sacred Scripture and the Church Fathers. The goal of such reading was sapientia, “wisdom,” as distinct from scientia, “knowledge.” In keeping with this goal, each monastery had a school, the primary purpose of which was instill within monastic oblates the literacy necessary for fruitful lectio. Under the leadership of Abbot Lanfranc, the monastic school at Bec developed into a center intellectual renown. When he entered Bec, Anselm’s thoughtfulness was immediately recognized by his superiors, who put him to work as a teacher and a writer.

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