September 17 - Saint Robert Bellarmine

Quick Facts

  • Third of ten children on Vincenzo Bellarmine and Cinzia Cervini, a family of impoverished nobles. His mother, a niece of Pope Marcellus II, was dedicated to almsgiving, prayer, meditation, fasting, and mortification.
  • Suffered assorted health problems all his life.
  • Educated by Jesuits as a boy.
  • Joined the Jesuits on 20 September 1560 over his father's opposition; he wanted Robert to enter politics.
  • Studied at the Collegio Romano from 1560 to 1563, Jesuit centers in Florence in 1563 and Mondovi, Piedmont; the University of Padua in 1567 and 1568, and the University of Louvain, Flanders in 1569.
  • Ordained on Palm Sunday, 1570 in Ghent, Belgium.
  • Professor of theology at the University of Louvain from 1570 to 1576.
  • A the request of Pope Gregory XIII, he taught polemical theology at the Collegio Romano from 1576 to 1587.
  • While there he wrote Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei adversus hujus temporis hereticos, the most complete work of the day to defend Catholicism against Protestant attack.
  • Spiritual director of the Roman College from 1588.
  • Taught Jesuit students and other children; wrote a children's catechism, Dottrina cristiana breve.
  • Wrote a catechism for teachers, Dichiarazione piu copiosa della dottrina cristiana.
  • Confessor of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga until his death, and then worked for the boy's canonization.
  • In 1590 he worked in France to defend the interests of the Church during a period of turmoil and conflict.
  • Member of the commission for the 1592 revision of the Vulgate Bible.Rector of the Collegio Romano from 1592 to 1594.
  • Provincial of the Jesuit province in Naples from 1594 to 1597.
  • Theologian to Pope Clement VIII from 1597 to 1599.
  • Examiner of bishops and consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition in 1597; strongly considered with discipline among the bishops.
  • Created Cardinal-priest on 3 March 1598 by Pope Clement VIII; he lived an austere life in Rome, giving most of his money to the poor.
  • At one point he used the tapestries in his living quarters to clothe the poor, saying that "the walls won't catch cold."
  • Defended the Apostolic See against anti-clericals in Venice, and the political tenets of James I of England.
  • Wrote exhaustive works against heresies of the day.
  • Took a position fundamentally democratic - authority originates with God, is vested in the people, who entrust it to fit rulers, a concept which brought him trouble with the kings of both England and France.
  • Spiritual father of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.
  • Helped Saint Francis de Sales obtain formal approval of the Visitation Order.
  • Noted preacher.
  • Archbishop of Capua on 18 March 1602.
  • Part of the two conclaves of 1605.
  • Involved in disputes between the Republic of Venice and the Vatican in 1606 and 1607 concerning clerical discipline and Vatican authority.
  • Involved in the controversy between King James I and the Vatican in 1607 and 1609 concerning cntrol of the Church in England.
  • Wrote Tractatus de potestate Summi Pontificis in rebus temporalibus adversus Gulielmum Barclaeum in opposition to Gallicanism.
  • Opposed action against Galileo Galilei in 1615, and established a friendly correspondence with him, but was forced to deliver the order for the scientist to submit to the Church.
  • Part of the conclave of 1621, and was considered for Pope.
  • Theological advisor to Pope Paul V.
  • Head of the Vatican library.
  • Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Rites.
  • Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Index.
  • Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 17 September 1931.