Father Juan Javier Flores Arcas, O.S.B., was elected Rector of the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’ Anselmo on March 19, 2009, with his election being confirmed by the Holy See on April 3, 2009. Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, O.S.B. oversaw the process in which Father Juan Javier was elected by his colleagues on the faculty of Sant’ Anselmo.
At the time he enters office on June 24, 2009, Father Juan Javier will be responsible for the three Faculties or academic divisions of Sant’ Anselmo; namely, the Faculties of Theology, Philosophy, and Liturgy. Within these three main departments and stemming from their primary fields of endeavor, Sant’ Anselmo also offers specialized courses of study in the History of Theology, Monastic Studies, and Philosophy and Mysticism.
Father Juan Javier was born in the city of Linares, in southern Spain, in 1951. He studied at the University of Granada and the Università Complutense in Madrid, receiving degrees in Philosophy and Spanish Literature. He began his monastic life at the Abbey of Santo Domingo di Silos, near Burgos in northern Spain in 1977. Father Juan Javier was ordained to the priesthood in 1983, and received his licentiate in Liturgy in 1988, and his doctorate in Liturgy in 1995, both at Sant’ Anselmo. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Faculty at Sant’ Anselmo, teaching a variety of courses in the areas of Liturgy and Sacramental Theology. In 2000 Father Juan Javier was elected President of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute—a position he held until 2008—and in 2003 he was further appointed as Professor of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology at Sant’ Anselmo. Father Juan Javier served as a consultant to the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, and the 2008 Synod on the Word of God in the Life of the Church.
In addition to his teaching, Father Juan Javier has been active in scholarly writing, publishing numerous books and articles on the subject of the liturgy and the sacraments. He has also taken a prominent role in the administration of several Benedictine Congregations at the international level, and continues to serve as a consultant to the Congregation for Divine Worship of the Holy See.