The College of Sant'Anselmo () is an international Benedictine college founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1887 and located in Rome, Italy. Situated on the Aventine Hill, it is one of four Benedictine institutions that occupy the complex known as "Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino" which serves as the Primatial Abbey () of the Benedictine Confederation. As an ecclesiastical residential college in the Roman College tradition, it serves as both a house of formation for Benedictines, but also as a residence for over one hundred monks from around forty countries, religious, diocesan priests, and lay people. It offers a monastic environment for those who study at the onsite Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm or at other Roman pontifical universities.
History
Benedictine Formation
Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-547) was a monk remembered mostly for his "Rule of Saint Benedict" completed before his death. Much larger stories of him come down to us through the writings of Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) who published four books of his "Dialogues" in 594. Book two of the Dialogues was entitled "Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict". We learn from both the Rule and the Dialogues of how important was the formation and continuing education of the monks in a monastery. In the prologue #45 to the Rule we find that Benedict wrote that he intended "to establish a school for the Lord's service". As noted by one author, "schola" is used in the Rule to refer to both the monastery, but also the whole group of people "who have come together for the common purpose specified by the Rule: to seek God, to imitate Christ, to obey his commands, to persevere in his teaching. Moreover, the education of a monk comes not just through studying even as that is important. Instead, Thus, integral to monastic formation is the understanding that a monastery forms its monks not just through formal education, studies and contemplative prayer, but also through service to others (liturgical, through manual labor, and through hospitality). As such, monasteries have traditionally formed their own monks at their own monasteries.
First College of Sant'Anselmo
By the early 15th century, the number of Benedictine monasteries connected with the Archabbey of Monte Cassino varied in membership from very small to very large. As such, a "Cassinese Benedictine Congregation" was formed in 1408 to affiliate those monasteries connected with the archabbey as a means of support and cooperation. One such endeavor was the need to offer training and formation of Benedictine monks to serve as professors and formators to individual monasteries, but to do so within a very specific monastic environment. Therefore, on March 22, 1687, Pope Innocent XI founded a "Collegio Sant'Anselmo" for students from the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation that would reside initially at the Palazzo San Callisto in Rome's Trastevere section, and then later at the Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The college was named in honor of the Benedictine monk Saint Anselm of Canterbury. Over the years the number of students at the "Collegio Sant'Anselmo" varied, but by the early 19th century few students remained and the college dissolved. By 1885, Pope Leo XIII began to envision a refoundation of the college but with a renewed emphasis on it accepting students from Benedictine abbeys around the world and not just from the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation. On January 4, 1887, Pope Leo XIII issued a papal brief ("Quae diligenter") that formally commissioned the re-establishment of an international residential college in Rome to serve all Benedictine abbeys of the world.
Second College of Sant'Anselmo
Housing for the reestablished "Collegio Sant'Anselmo" would become a critical challenge so the Benedictines began a search for more permanent accommodations. The college found its first and temporary location in a part of the Palazzo dei Convertendi on the Piazza Borgo Vecchio. Archbishop Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet, O.S.B. had been entrusted by Pope Leo XII with the refoundation of the college and the first day began with only fourteen students. Soon, others would begin arriving from monasteries throughout the world including a total of seven Benedictine professors and five lay brothers. The college would be led by Abbot Gaetano Bernardi from Monte Cassino with his Prior being Fr. Adalbert Miller from Saint Vincent Archabbey.