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What did Anselm mean by the phrase faith seeking reason?

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Medieval philosophy Image of St. Ambrose, detail from a stained-glass window in a Roman Catholic church in Antwerp, Belgium.

For St. Anselm of Canterbury, the phrase "faith seeking understanding" (often rendered as fides quaerens intellectum) describes a method of inquiry where faith serves as the necessary starting point for truth.12

In Anselm’s view, faith comes first; however, this does not preclude the use of reason. Instead, he argued that reason should follow faith to provide logical support and clarity for what is already believed. By seeking to understand the content of one's faith through rational analysis, the believer moves toward a deeper intellectual grasp of divine truths.123

This approach is exemplified in his work the Proslogion—originally titled Fides quaerens intellectum—where he attempts to demonstrate the existence of God through the ontological argument. Rather than relying solely on the authority of Scripture, Anselm utilized dialectical rigor to show that the very concept of a being "than which none greater can be conceived" necessitates its existence in reality.31