Saint Anselm of Aosta

Anselm was born in Aosta in 1033 or 1034, into a noble family, and at just over twenty he left home. He crossed the Alps, wandered through Burgundy and France, and ended up at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Bec, in Normandy, where Lanfranc of Pavia taught. There he became a monk, and within a few years he was its prior and then its abbot. He is considered the father of Scholasticism, and the reason lies in a phrase of his: *fides quaerens intellectum*, faith seeking understanding. Not believing instead of reasoning, and not reasoning instead of believing: using your mind all the way on what you believe. In the Proslogion he set out what philosophers call the ontological argument for the existence of God — a line of reasoning that for nine hundred years has never stopped being debated, refuted and revived, from Descartes to Kant to Gödel. At sixty he was made archbishop of Canterbury, and his life changed again. He found himself in the middle of the Investiture Controversy: two kings of England, William II and Henry I, claimed the right to appoint bishops themselves, and Anselm said no to both. He was exiled twice. In the end, in 1107, a compromise was reached that became a model for all of Europe. He died in Canterbury on April 21, 1109. He is a Doctor of the Church. If your name is Anselm, today is your name day.