Holy Mass on the 125th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church of St. Anselm on the Aventine Hill

On Tuesday, November 11, 2025, the Feast of St. Martin, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in honor of the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the Church of St. Anselm on the Aventine Hill. In his homily, Pope Leo recalled the words of Jesus, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church" ( Mt 16:18), and reflected on Benedictine monasticism.

"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church" ( Mt 16:18). Dear brothers and sisters, we have listened to these words of Jesus as we remember the 125th anniversary of the Dedication of this church, strongly desired by Pope Leo XIII , who promoted its construction.

He intended this building, together with that of the annexed International College , to contribute to a strengthening of the Benedictine presence in the Church and in the world, through ever greater unity within the Benedictine Confederation , a goal for which the Office of Abbot Primate was also introduced . He did this because he was convinced that your ancient Order could be of great assistance to the good of all the People of God in a time full of challenges, such as the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.

Indeed, monasticism, from its very beginnings, has been a "frontier" reality, encouraging courageous men and women to establish centers of prayer, work, and charity in the most remote and inaccessible places, often transforming desolate areas into fertile and rich lands, agriculturally and economically, but above all spiritually. The monastery, thus, has increasingly become a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even in the darkest periods of history.

Even in our time, there is no shortage of challenges to face. The sudden changes we witness challenge and question us, raising previously unseen issues. This celebration reminds us that, like the Apostle Peter, and with him Benedict and so many others, we too can respond to the demands of the vocation we have received only by placing Christ at the center of our existence and our mission, starting with that act of faith that makes us recognize Him as the Savior and translating it into prayer, study, and the commitment to a holy life.

Here, all this is accomplished in various ways: first of all in the liturgy, then in Lectio divina , in research, in pastoral care, with the involvement of monks from all over the world and with openness to clerics, religious men and women, and lay people from the most diverse backgrounds and circumstances. The monastery, the Athenaeum, the Liturgical Institute, and the pastoral activities connected to the Church, in accordance with the teachings of St. Benedict, must thus grow ever more synergistically as an authentic "school of the Lord's service" (St. Benedict, Rule , Prologue, 45).

For this reason, I thought of the complex in which we find ourselves as a reality that must aspire to become a beating heart in the great body of the Benedictine world with the church at its center, according to the teachings of Saint Benedict.

The first reading (cf. Ezek 43:1-2, 4-7a) presented us with the image of the river flowing from the Temple. This image harmonizes very well with that of the heart pumping the lifeblood of blood throughout the body, so that each member may receive nourishment and strength for the benefit of the others (cf. 1 Cor 12:20-27); as well as with that of the spiritual edifice of which the second reading spoke, founded on the solid rock that is Christ (cf. 1 Pet 2 :4-9).

In the industrious hive of Sant'Anselmo, may this be the place from which everything begins and to which everything returns to find verification, confirmation, and deepening before God, as Saint John Paul II recommended during his visit to the Pontifical Athenaeum on the occasion of the centenary of its foundation. He said, referring to his patron saint: "Saint Anselm reminds everyone [...] that knowledge of the divine mysteries is not so much an achievement of human genius, but rather a gift that God gives to the humble and to believers" ( Speech , 1 June 1986).

He was referring, as mentioned, to the teachings of the Doctor of Aosta, but we wish to hope that this is also the prophetic message that reaches the Church and the world from this Institution, as the fulfillment of the mission that we have all received, to be a people that God has acquired so that we may proclaim the admirable works of him, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (cf. 1 Pt 2:9).

The Dedication is the solemn moment in the history of a sacred building in which it is consecrated to be a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God: an open door to the eternal, in which the soul finds an answer to the "tension between the conjuncture of the moment and the light of time, of the broader horizon [...] which opens us to the future as the final cause that attracts us" (Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium , 222) in the encounter between fullness and limitation that accompanies our earthly journey.

The Second Vatican Council describes all this in one of its most beautiful pages, when it defines the Church as "human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, fervent in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world yet a pilgrim; […] in such a way, however, that what is human in her is ordered and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, this present world to the city to come, towards which we journey" (Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium , 2).

It is the experience of our life and of the life of every man and woman in this world, in search of that ultimate and fundamental answer that "neither flesh nor blood" can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 16:17); ultimately in need of Jesus, "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (v. 16). We are called to seek Him and to Him we are called to bring all those we meet, grateful for the gifts He has bestowed upon us, and above all for the love with which He has preceded us (cf. Rom 5:6). This temple will then increasingly become a place of joy, in which we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have freely received (cf. Mt 10:8).
 

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