ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 21st of April WELCOME! ALEXANDER II., POPE ⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index Alexander II, Pope, sat from 1061 to 1073. As Anselm of Lucca, he had been recognised for a number of years as one of the leaders of the reform party, especially in the Milanese territory, where he was born at Baggio, of noble parentage. Together with Hildebrand, he had imbibed in Cluny the zeal for reform. The first theatre of his activity was Milan, where he was one of the founders of the Pataria, and lent to that great agitation against simony and clerical incontinency the weight of his eloquence and noble birth. The device of silencing him, contrived by Archbishop Guido and other episcopal foes of reform in Lombardy, viz. sending him to the court of the Emperor Henry III, had the contrary effect of enabling him to spread the propaganda in Germany. In 1057 the Emperor appointed him to the bishopric of Lucca. With increased prestige...