Archbishop Anselm, Benedictine Spirituality, and the Challenge of Worldly Wealth

While Benedict of Nursia may have left worldliness behind when he fled Rome for his cave at Subiaco, he brought the world with him. With the founding of Monte Cassino, he established a school for the Lord’s service that would draw to it both rich and poor alike. Yet this openness to the world would place his disciples in a difficult position: how does one heed St. Benedict’s warnings against “the evil of private property” while running wealthy monasteries and schools? In this paper, we will look at Saint Anselm (Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Canterbury) as a model for the right way to take up the challenge of worldly wealth; discuss how property and wealth are viewed in the Catholic intellectual tradition; and conclude by reflecting on how we can use our own worldly goods in such a way as to be in the world but not of it.