Anselm (died 805) was the Lombard

Duke of Friuli The dukes and margraves of Friuli were the rulers of the Duchy and March of Friuli in the Middle Ages. The dates given below, when contentious, are discussed in the articles of the respective dukes. Lombard dukes * 568–c.584 Grasulf I * 5 ...

in the northeastern part of

Lombard Italy The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established ...

, He left the world at the height of his secular career, and in 750 built a monastery at Fanano, a place given to him by

Aistulf Aistulf (also Ahistulf, Aistulfus, Haistulfus, Astolf etc.; it, Astolfo; died December 756) was the Duke of Friuli from 744, King of the Lombards from 749, and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious ef ...

King of the Lombards The Kings of the Lombards or ''reges Langobardorum'' (singular ''rex Langobardorum'') were the monarchs of the Lombard people from the early 6th century until the Lombardic identity became lost in the 9th and 10th centuries. After 568, the Lombar ...

, who had married Anselm's sister Gisaltruda. Two years later he built the monastery of Nonantula, a short distance northeast of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, which Aistulf endowed. Anselm went to Rome, where

Pope Stephen III Pope Stephen III ( la, Stephanus III; died 1 February 772) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 7 August 768 to his death. Stephen was a Benedictine monk who worked in the Lateran Palace during the reign of Pope Zachary. I ...

invested him with the habit of Saint Benedict, gave him some relics of Saint Sylvester and appointed him Abbot of Nonantula. Anselm founded many hospices where the poor and the sick were sheltered and cared for by monks. According to the twelfth-century ''Catalogus abbatum nonantulorum'', a list of abbots of Nonantola with their histories,

Desiderius Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius (born – died ), was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Des ...

, who succeeded Aistulf as King of the Lombards in 756, banished Anselm from Nonantula in favor of his own protégé. Anselm spent the seven years of his exile at the Benedictine monastery of

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...

, but returned to Nonantula after Desiderius was taken prisoner by

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

in the war of 774. This exile is not mentioned the earlier ''Vita Anselmi'', a biography of Anselm written one or two hundred years after his death.Nicholas Everett, ''Literacy and Lombard Italy, c. 568–774'' (Cambridge: 2003), 294 n. 70. Until 1083, Nonantula was an imperial monastery, and after Anselm's time its discipline often suffered from imperial interference in the election of its abbots. Having been abbot for fifty years, Anselm died at Nonantula in 805, where the commune still honors him as

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. His feast day is 3 March.

References

Sources

Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, s ...

''Historia Langobardorum''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anselm, Duke Of Friuli Dukes of Friuli Italian abbots 8th-century Christian saints Burials at Nonantola Abbey 8th-century births 805 deaths Medieval Italian saints Italian Benedictines Benedictine abbots Benedictine saints 8th-century Lombard people Italian Christian monks