Apr. 21 Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter; Opt Mem of St. Anselm, Bishop and Doctor, Opt. Mem.

The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Anselm (1033-1109), who was born in Aosta, Italy, and died in Canterbury, England. St. Anselm’s services to the Church are principally the following: First, as Archbishop of Canterbury he defended the rights and liberties of the Church against the encroachments of the English kings, who plundered the Church’s lands, impeded the Archbishop’s communications with the Holy See, and claimed the right to invest prelates with ring and crosier, symbols of the Church’s spiritual jurisdiction. Second, as a philosopher and theologian he developed a method of reasoning which prepared the way for the great thinkers of the Middle Ages. Third, he had a great devotion to Our Lady and was the first to establish the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the West.

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