About Me

My life has taken me from the monastery to the herbal research laboratory, from academic study to questions about how communities learn, heal, and organise their economic lives. These experiences may seem distinct, but they have gradually become part of the same inquiry: how can we draw on the wisdom of our traditions while responding thoughtfully to the challenges of the present?

I am Anselm Adodo, a Benedictine monk and Catholic priest of St. Benedict Monastery, Ewu, Edo State, Nigeria. My work brings together monastic life, African knowledge systems, medicinal plants, social research, education, and community development.

My Monastic Journey and Paxherbal

I joined St. Benedict Monastery in Ewu in November 1987 and was ordained a priest in 1997. My monastic formation gave me a foundation in philosophy and theology, as well as a way of approaching life through prayer, study, work, and community.

My interest in African medicinal plants and indigenous healing knowledge grew into practical research and institutional work. Together with fellow members of the Benedictine community, I initiated the Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories, popularly known as Paxherbal, in Ewu.

Paxherbal developed as a centre for phytomedicine research and education, bringing scientific investigation into conversation with African traditions of plant use. The work has involved researchers, laboratory professionals, students, and other members of the community. It has also raised questions that extend beyond medicine: how do we preserve valuable local knowledge, strengthen community-based institutions, and make research relevant to people’s lives?

I see Paxherbal as a work of the Benedictine community, sustained by the contributions of many people rather than the achievement of one individual.

Academic Formation and Institutional Experience

My academic training has taken me across philosophy, religious studies, theology, and the social sciences. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; a master’s degree in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, United States; and postgraduate qualifications in Medical Sociology from the University of Benin, Nigeria. I also hold a doctoral degree in Management of Technology and Innovation from the Da Vinci Institute in South Africa.

These different fields have shaped the way I approach research. Questions about health, for example, cannot always be answered by studying plants or laboratory results alone. They also require attention to culture, social relationships, institutions, public policy, and the ways people understand illness and wellbeing.

My academic and institutional engagements have included work associated with the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, alongside research, teaching, and scholarly collaboration on African medicine, knowledge systems, and development.

My Work at the Collegeville Institute

In September 2026, the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Minnesota, United States, announced my appointment as Senior Research Fellow and Special Advisor.

This work brings my Benedictine formation and interdisciplinary interests into a new institutional setting. My responsibilities include contributing to the Institute’s organisational development, supporting its Resident Scholars Program, and helping cultivate practices of contemplative listening, hospitality, and intercultural collaboration.

I am particularly interested in what happens when people from different cultures, disciplines, and religious traditions learn to work together without losing the particularity of their own experiences. For me, community is not merely an idea to be discussed; it is something that must be practised through the way we listen, share responsibility, and work together.

Books and Research

My writing reflects the different stages of this journey, from African herbal medicine to questions of knowledge, education, and economic organisation.

Selected books include:

• Nature Power: Natural Medicine in Tropical Africa

• Herbal Medicine and the Revival of African Civilization

• New Frontiers in African Medicine

• Disease and Dietary Pattern in Edo Central Nigeria

• Healing Plants of Nigeria: Ethnomedicine and Therapeutic Applications, with Maurice Iwu

• Integral Community Enterprise in Africa: Communitalism as an Alternative to Capitalism

• The Idea of the Communiversity: Releasing the Natural, Cultural, Technological, and Economic Gene-ius of Societies, co-authored

• Integral Research and Societal Regeneration in Africa: From University to Communiversity, co-authored

My research interests include African medicinal plants and phytomedicine, indigenous knowledge systems, medical sociology, health policy, Benedictine spirituality, community development, African approaches to education, and alternative models of economic life.

One idea that connects much of my more recent work is Communitalism: an approach to enterprise and economic organisation that places shared responsibility, community wellbeing, and human relationships at the centre of economic life. I explore this idea in relation to African experience and Benedictine principles of communal living and work.

Continuing the Conversation

I continue to explore the relationships between faith and knowledge, tradition and research, individual wellbeing and community life. I am interested in how institutions can serve people more meaningfully and how African knowledge systems can contribute to wider conversations about health, education, and development.

The questions that guide my work are still unfolding. I welcome opportunities for scholarly exchange, collaboration, and thoughtful conversation with people working across these fields.