Anselm of Bomarzo

Holy Hierarch Anselm of Bomarzo was bishop of the city of Bomarzo in central Italy in the 6th century. His life is known from a work entitled Vita Beati Anselmi Episcopi et Confessoris, of the 7th to 9th centuries, a copy of which was kept at Orvieto.

He was born into a wealthy family, in Bomarzo or in Mugnano in Teverina. His parents, good Christians, gave alms and cared for the needy, and brought him up from childhood in the study of the Holy Scriptures. After their death he gave his property to the poor and withdrew to the contemplative life. When the bishop of the city died, the clergy gathered in the church to choose a successor and, after days of fasting and prayer, a voice was heard in the cathedral: "Choose Anselm as bishop, for he is worthy". Clergy and people acclaimed him and, after ordination, he was placed on the episcopal throne.

Tradition credits him with many miracles, among them the casting out of unclean spirits and raising of the dead. The best known are those of the time of the invasion by the Goths of Totila: he opposed the conquest, and the attackers were made harmless, while in another account he made lead acorns rain on them. Feeling that his hour was near, he called the priests and deacons and prayed with them, then reposed peacefully on 24 April, in an unspecified year of the 6th century, and was buried in the church of Santa Maria. Bomarzo celebrates him twice a year: between 23 April and 1 May, and on the third Sunday of June, in memory of the translation of his relics, made on 16 June 1647, when Duke Ippolito Lante della Rovere moved the casket from the altar of Saint Sebastian to the central altar. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.