Saint Anselm College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire, United States. Founded in 1889, it is named after Saint Anselm of Canterbury. In 2024, the college's enrollment was 2,094 students.
History The first Bishop of Manchester, Denis Mary Bradley, invited the Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey, to form a college and preparatory school in his diocese. The monks who came to Manchester from St. Mary's were primarily of German descent, as Manchester was heavily populated with French Canadian and Irish immigrant mill workers, and Bradley was unable to find another suitable group that would not stir up ethnic tensions.
The monks, who there founded Saint Anselm Abbey, started the nearby college as New England's third Catholic institution of higher learning. On August 1, 1889, the New Hampshire legislature approved the incorporation of the Order of Saint Benedict of New Hampshire "for religious and charitable purposes, for the education of youth, for establishing churches and conducting services therein." This marked the founding of Saint Anselm College. A six-year curriculum in philosophy and theology was developed. In 1895, the New Hampshire legislature granted Saint Anselm College the right to bestow standard academic degrees upon its graduates.
The Saint Anselm Abbey's shield was designed by Pierre de Chaignon la Rose of Harvard University. It incorporates the personal coat of Anselm of Canterbury and the first seal of New Hampshire. In 1927, by a monastic vote, the shield design was incorporated as the official shield of Saint Anselm Abbey and the college. The drops in each quadrant represent the three drops of blood on Anselm's coat of arms, and the sheaf of five arrows is taken from the first shield of New Hampshire, representing the state's five original counties. Hence, the Abbey Shield has been interpreted as Saint Anselm of New Hampshire.
One goal of the early college was to be a self-sufficient institution. The college had a farm of over , complete with chickens, pigs, and cows. It also had a full vegetable garden, which extended from the lawn of Alumni Hall to the current parking lot between Joan of Arc Hall and Davison Hall. Due to the hard work of the monks and several lay members from the local community, the college was agriculturally independent of the local community. Bonaventure Ostendarp founded the Studio of Christian Art in 1893 to sell paintings to Catholic churches throughout the region. The current Raphael House of the Courts dormitories was the original art studio for the monks, built in 1895.
The Benedictines who established Saint Anselm College also founded a preparatory school. It was a prestigious boarding school for elite men from around New England. In 1935, the monks closed the preparatory school to save money for the college's expansion. A notable alumnus of Saint Anselm Preparatory was Connecticut senator Thomas J. Dodd.
In 1942, Saint Anselm College became one of the institutions the War Department selected for training Army Aviation cadets. Thousands of young men were sent there for training and education before entering World War II. Cadets trained on large open fields directly behind the later Coffee Shop. The US government paid the college for training the cadets, and after the war, the college acquired two prefabricated government buildings that have been transformed into the modern-day coffee shop and pub. During the war, several members of the monastic community served as Army chaplains; their names are inscribed on a monument in front of Alumni Hall dedicated to all graduates who have served in the armed forces.
Since the 1950s, the college has played a role in the New Hampshire presidential primary, and has served as a stage for many future presidents, candidates, and supporters.
During the tumultuous 1960s, Saint Anselm College had no major disturbances or riots on campus despite bomb threats called into campus, often from parties outside the college. Placidus Riley, OSB, led the college through these challenging times. Despite the backlash against the US military on college campuses nationwide, the presence of a National Guard armory did not result in any major problems. But in May 1970, final exams were made optional as students showed support for the students of Kent State after the shootings. Students, faculty, and members of the monastic community held prayer services and rallies on campus after the shootings.
The Institute of Saint Anselm Studies was founded in 2000, and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics was founded in 2001.
In 2013, Steven DiSalvo, the former president of Marian University, was named the 10th president of Saint Anselm. DiSalvo replaced Jonathan DeFelice after 24 years of service. DeFelice was the longest-serving college president in New Hampshire. In 2019, Joseph A. Favazza began his tenure as Saint Anselm’s 11th president.President | Saint Anselm College
The monks of Saint Anselm Abbey had the primary responsibility of the day-to-day operation of the college until 2009, when many of those responsibilities were given to a 20-member board of trustees. A decade later, the monks sued the board over concerns about the college maintaining its Catholic identity. The lawsuit was settled the next year with an agreement that gave the monks responsibility for the college's mission and vision, with the board in charge of routine operations.
Campus The campus is mostly in Goffstown, New Hampshire, with some of the athletic fields in the adjoining town of Bedford. The mailing address for students and faculty is Manchester, New Hampshire. There are 60 buildings on campus, which spans over . More than 40 of them have been built since 1977.
Alumni Hall Alumni Hall was constructed by the Benedictine monks and local contractors from 1891 through the winter of 1892; the building was designed by Patrick W. Ford, an Irish-American architect from Boston. Nearing completion in February 1892, all that remained was for workers to continue to plaster the interior walls. A fire, which was most likely caused by an open heating stove's grate, sparked an ember and destroyed the entire structure. No one was seriously hurt because of the fire. The monks were forced to rebuild the college, spending considerably less money on the construction, as they had received only $55,000 from the Insurance Commissioner of the State of New Hampshire. In an effort to save money, bricks were salvaged from the previous structure and pieces of granite were cut from large granite rocks still visible on the current quad. In 1893, the building that is the center of campus was completed; the fire delayed the first academic semester by one year. On October 11, 1893, the college was officially rededicated. To avoid the possibility of another fire, a power house was constructed separately from the building. Farmland complete with livestock, beanpoles and tomato plants lined the present-day quad and adjacent fields. In 1912, the bell tower and ivy were added to the building; in 1923, the college's second chapel (the first being located on the second floor at the present-day business office) was constructed as a connecting wing. Today this second chapel is the college's Chapel Arts Center, which hosts art exhibits and other cultural events. It still boasts ornate stained glass windows and painted ceilings.
Today, Alumni Hall houses faculty offices, administrative offices, the Chapel Arts Center, a women's residence hall named "Alumni Streets", and several smart classrooms. Beneath the Chapel Arts Center are a photography lab, darkroom, and several faculty and student publication offices. Beneath "Alumni Streets" and the bell tower are the offices of the Dean of Students, the Registrar's Office, the Office Diversity and Inclusion and several classrooms. Until 1919, the college consisted solely of Alumni Hall. Before this expansion, the monks lived on the second floor and students lived on the third and fourth floors. The first floor and basement had classrooms, a library and cafeteria.
Saint Anselm Abbey Church and monastery
The Abbey Church is the liturgical center of the college and is frequently cited as the "heart of campus." The upper church allows the college community to join with the monastic community for the daily celebration of the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours. The lower church permits smaller groups to assemble for worship and houses the Lady Chapel, the Saint Basil Byzantine Chapel, several other side altars, and several meeting rooms. The Lower Church is the location of the weekly 9 p.m. Wednesday night Mass. The monastery, built in 1955, has a kitchen staff and the monks join in all other tasks such as cleaning and upkeep. Having four floors, including a basement, the monastery can house up to eighty people, both monks and male guests on retreat. Elected in 2024, Abbot Isaac Murphy, OSB, has served as the sixth abbot of Saint Anselm Abbey and the ex officio chancellor of the college.
Male students frequently dine in the monastery as guests, experiencing the monastic practice of silence while eating, which allows for greater contemplation. The monastery has a refectory, a smaller guest refectory, a chapel, two welcoming rooms near the main entrance and elevator access to all four floors. The Abbey also serves as the mother house for the Woodside Priory School and the abbot serves as the spiritual father for the monks who serve there. Saint Anselm Abbey is a member of the American-Cassinese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. Saint Anselm Abbey was founded from Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey.
The abbey and church were both designed by Manchester architects Koehler & Isaak, the former in the conservative Colonial Revival style and the latter in an ambitious modernist style."A Benedictine Monastery" in New Hampshire Architect 6, no. 8 (March, 1955): 14. The architects intended the church's exposed masonry and beams to evoke the architecture of the early Catholic church.Bryant F. Tolles Jr. and Carolyn K. Tolles, New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1979)
Geisel Library The college performed a self-study in 1950 that revealed the need for a larger library. Joseph Geisel, a prominent Manchester businessman, contributed $500,000 in stock, and in 1959 the college broke ground on Geisel Library; the library opened its doors in the fall of 1960. Like the abbey, the library was designed by Koehler & Isaak.Engineering News–Record 162, no. 5 (February 5, 1959): 67. The library featured reading rooms, study areas, a reference center, a music room, seating for 385 students, and space for 100,000 volumes. This original section is the core of the present building. Two expansions, one in 1973 and the final in 1992, each increased the library's area by .
Geisel Library has three floors and over of space housing over 200,000 books, as well as resources and electronic equipment. The library is complete with several reference desks, over 30 computers, the Institute of Saint Anselm Studies and the Computer Science Department. On the second floor, there are three enclosed study areas; two are group study rooms that are available for student use, and the third is named the Creaghe Room, a locked, faculty-only study.
Geisel Library's book collection began with a sack of books brought by Fr. Hugo Paff from Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey; these books are still in the library and date back to the mid-19th century. During the early years of the college, Benedictines served as librarians on an ad hoc basis, but by 1929, Saint Anselm had its first official librarian, Fr. Cuthbert Redmond. New books were purchased under Fr. Edwin Davitt. By 1937, Saint Anselm could boast 8,000 books in several mini-libraries, as well as the main repository, by this time located on the second floor.