Early years

After the move to the Aventine Hill, the number of college residents continued to grow. To the abbots of the world who were sending their monks, one vital importance was the "monastic character" of the college. Even in the midst of students needing to study, the abbots wanted to ensure that monastic customs were maintained: daily communal prayer and mass, private prayer/meditation, monastic service, and silence in the house. Sant'Anselmo had been founded not as a monastery, but as "an institute of higher studies" with a distinctive "monastic character". This would be the challenge over the next 100 years as to how to balance what were seemingly competing goals to the life at Sant'Anselmo. As one author noted, "the main purpose of Sant'Anselmo was and remained the training of young Benedictines in philosophy and theology".^[9]

By 1914 at the start of the first world war, the college had eleven professors, seventy-five Benedictine students, six Cistercians, one Camaldolese, and one Olivetan. All the manual labor was completed by sixteen lay brothers who were mostly from the Beuronese Congregation. On June 24, 1914, Pope Pius X issued a Motu proprio that formally granted Sant'Anselmo the right to confer doctoral decrees in Philosophy, Theology, and Canon Law with equal status to the other pontifical universities in Rome.^[10]

War years

The war years brought great challenges to the college as monasteries -especially those from countries in direct conflict- struggled to get their students to the college. During the first world war, the Benedictines had been entrusted by the Vatican with the work on the new edition of the Latin Vulgate along with a continuing outreach to the ecumenical movement with the East. Some students had to return to their home countries as they were drafted into the war efforts. Likewise, the Italian government began to transform schools into military hospitals and Sant'Anselmo was no exception. The college was used as a war hospital from September 1916 to July 1919.^[11]

The period before the second world war saw a flourishing of studies and monastic life at Sant'Anselmo, but a struggle for professors and finances. There was an especially renewed interest by Fr. Lambert Beauduin to recommit to Pope Leo XIII's original vision of Benedictines as a bridge to the Eastern Churches. This would ultimately lead to Beauduin's founding of Chevetogne Abbey in Belgium. These post war years would also see the "International College of Sant'Anselmo (Collegium Internationale S. Anselmi de Urbe)" welcome for the first time not only students of other religious orders, but also diocesan clerics.^[12]

During the second world war, great efforts were made to ensure no national factions developed amongst the students. This is where the monastic practice of dividing the larger community into smaller "deaneries" became so very important even as they are today. No one language group would predominate even as the hope was that students would also learn other languages and about other cultures.^[13] Nonetheless, students would face difficulties as their home monasteries were closed, some were drafted into the war efforts of their countries, and tensions would rise. One visiting monk, Fr. Hermann Keller from the Archabbey of Beuron, was also found to be working for the German Gestapo but was transferred to Paris. Further challenging the students was the sudden death in 1942 of Fr. Anselm Stolz of Gerleve Abbey who had served as an internationally famous monk and professor. Finally, in October 1943, the monastic community of the Archabbey of Monte Cassino, along with their archives and artwork, were transferred to Sant'Anselmo before the final destruction of that monastery.^[14]

Post war years

The years after the second world war saw the college once again flourishing, along with major renovations of the buildings, church, and grounds of Sant'Anselmo. By 1939 there were eighty-six Benedictine students and sixty students from outside the monastic community. In May 1952, the Abbot Primate also established the Monastic Institute (Latin: Studiorum Monasticorum Institutum) a part of the Department of Theology in an effort to further the teaching of Benedictine formators.^[15] Finally, on June 17, 1961, the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy (Latin: Pontificium Institutum Liturgicum) was formally established with its opening on December 9, 1961, and the appointment of Fr. Salvatore Marsili as its first moderator.^[16]

Further changes were made in 1966 by the Congress of Abbots which saw the separation of the "Collegio Sant'Anselmo" from the "Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm" to function as two separate institutions, a later acceptance of women as students in the university, as well as the change from lectures in Latin to lectures in Italian. The further lack of lay brothers saw the employment of lay employees to handle most of the manual labor.^[17]

Present

The "Collegio Sant'Anselmo" is described as a "collegium monasteriale". In the words of one author:

These two words are intended to express the fact that Sant’Anselmo, as a Benedictine college, resembles a monastery and is not merely a house of studies. Nor is it a seminary, of which there are many. It is, rather, an international community of professors, officials, and students who follow a monastic rhythm of life to the extent that this is reconcilable with the main objective of the house, which is studies.^[18]

As an ecclesiastical residential college, it is distinct from others in its "monastic character" shown in certain communal exercises. Above all, there is the daily choral celebration of the Opus Dei and Mass where residents are assigned to serve in various liturgical roles. Likewise, in contrast with other religious houses in Rome, there are servers at the common meals at midday and in the evening. The washing of dishes after these meals is also expected as residents take turns to perform each of these services.^[19]

Breakfast follows the monastic tradition of being taken in silence. At lunch one may talk, which allows for the residents from around the world to get to know each other. For five days of the week, supper takes place without conversation but with either public reading or recorded music during the meal. Self-service meals with talking takes place regularly only on Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings.^[20]

For the choral communal prayers, at 6:20 a.m. Lauds and Mass are celebrated in Italian followed by breakfast. The midday office (Ora Media) begins at 12:50 pm and consists of a Latin hymn, one or two psalms sung in Latin, a short reading in Italian, followed by a concluding prayer in Latin. Lunch then follows with choral meal prayers at table both before and after eating. Vespers is chanted in Latin at 7:15 p.m. by all in the church, followed by Supper with choral meal prayers at table both before and after eating. Compline is chanted in Latin at 8:30 p.m. to end the day. On Sundays and major feasts, Lauds is chanted in Latin at 6:50 a.m. with conventual Mass in Italian following at 9:00 A.M.

Thus, Benedictines seeking further studies are encouraged to study in Rome because the presence of the college provides a unique gift of living at an ecclesiastical residential college with a distinctive "monastic character". Rooms are also available to other religious, diocesan priests, and lay people who are studying at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm or at other Roman pontifical universities.^[21]