Today, we celebrate the optional memorial of Saint Robert Bellarmine, pastor and doctor of the Church.

Saint Robert was the third of ten children of Vincenzo Bellarmine and Cinzia Cervini, a family of impoverished nobles. Educated by Jesuits as a boy, he joined the Jesuits on 20 September 1560 over the opposition of his father who wanted Robert to enter politics. He was ordained a priest on Palm Sunday, 1570 in Ghent, Belgium.

He began his ministry as a professor of theology at the University of Louvain from 1570 to 1576. At 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. He became the Spiritual director of the Roman College from 1588. He taught Jesuit students and other children, writing a childrens’ catechism, Dottrina cristiana breve. He wrote a catechism for teachers, Dichiarazione piu copiosa della dottrina cristiana. He was confessor of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga until the saint’s death, then worked for the youth’s canonization.

He was appointed as a member of the commission for the 1592 revision of the Vulgate Bible and served as theologian to Pope Clement VIII from 1597 to 1599. He was appointed examiner of bishops and consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition in 1597.

He wrote exhaustive works against heresies of the day. He took a fundamentally democratic position—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. He helped Saint Francis de Sales obtain formal approval of the Visitation Order.
He authored the Tractatus de potestate Summi Pontificis in rebus temporalibus adversus Gulielmum Barclaeum, in opposition to Gallicanism. He 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. As part of the conclave of 1621, he was considered for Pope.

He died on 17 September 1621 and was canonized by Pope Pius XI He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 17 September 1931.
St. Robert BellarminePray for us!