Br. Dunstan Robidoux

I was born in a French Canadian family on June 4, 1951 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where I grew up as the eldest of four children. I attended local schools and in later years was privileged to attend lectures at the University of New Brunswick, the Catholic University of Louvain, the University of Toronto, and the Catholic University of America.

I have been a monk at St. Anselm’s Abbey since 1987, and through the years have functioned in various capacities, teaching in the Abbey School from 1989-2000 and currently serving as the abbey’s almoner, infirmarian, manager of the gift shop, and part-time receptionist. I spend much of my free time thinking about philosophical and theological problems. In 1993, I began working with Dr. David Fleischacker to study the thought of Fr. Bernard Lonergan SJ, and since 1996 have served as the vice-director of the Lonergan Institute for the “Good Under Construction,” which is based at the abbey. Around the turn of the millennium I was appointed a trustee of the Phyllis Wallbank Educational Trust, whose central office is in London.

My work has at times taken me to different parts of the world to meet with various persons and to engage in discussions on issues in philosophy or theology (most recently in Austria, France, England, and South Korea). At the abbey itself I have an office where I can engage in further studies and do research, writing papers and articles and sometimes also functioning as a seminar leader and instructor. Monastic life as it is lived in my community has created and maintained a context and order of life and prayer which has allowed me to do very many things, and the love of family and friends has sustained me along the way. Our Lord has brought many dear persons into my life and enabled me to share in the joys and sorrows of many.