Anselm, Duke of Friuli
Medieval abbot
Feast: 3 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Anselm, Duke of Friuli, left the world to serve God in a monastery. In 750 he built a monastery at Fanano on land given by his brother-in-law King Aistulf, and two years later founded Nonantola near Modena, where Pope Stephen gave him the Benedictine habit and made him abbot.
Charitable and able, he founded many hospices where monks cared for the poor and weak. Exiled by King Desiderius, he spent seven years at Monte Cassino, then returned to Nonantola. He died there in 803 after fifty years as abbot, and the town still honours him as patron.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
A duke who became a monk and built hospices for the poor.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Anselm, Abbot of Nonantola
- Wikidata Q569615 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Anselm, Duke of Friuli (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.