Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor
S. Roberti Bellarmino Episcopi Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris
Saint Robert Bellarmine was a Jesuit cardinal and Archbishop of Capua, one of the foremost theologians of his age, who defended the Catholic faith with learning and gentleness and is honoured as a Doctor of the Church.
Saint Robert Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany in 1542, a nephew of Pope Marcellus II. Entering the Society of Jesus as a young man, he gave his long life to the study and teaching of sacred doctrine, and was raised in time to the cardinalate and to the See of Capua. The Church venerates him as a Confessor and a Doctor, esteeming both the clarity of his teaching and the holiness and humility of his life.
His life and labours
Ordained priest in 1570, Bellarmine taught theology at Louvain and afterward at the Roman College, where his lectures grew into his great work, commonly called the Disputations, a calm and orderly exposition of the controverted questions of the day. He wrote not to wound but to persuade, setting forth the teaching of the Church with such fairness that even those who disagreed with him acknowledged his learning and his charity.
Created a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII in 1599 — against his own wish, for he loved the simplicity of his religious life — he was later named Archbishop of Capua, where he laboured as a true shepherd, preaching, catechising, and giving away his revenues to the poor. Recalled to Rome, he served the Holy See in many grave affairs of the Church with wisdom and moderation. He composed two short catechisms that were translated into many tongues and used for generations, and he wrote tender works on the spiritual life, among them The Art of Dying Well and The Mind’s Ascent to God.
For all his honours he remained poor and unassuming, sleeping little, fasting often, and keeping the heart of a religious beneath the cardinal’s purple. He died in Rome on the seventeenth of September, 1621, at the age of seventy-eight.
Doctor of the Church
Saint Robert Bellarmine was canonised in 1930 by Pope Pius XI, who the following year declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church. In the calendar of the 1962 Missal his feast is kept on the thirteenth of May. The Church holds him up as a model for teachers and catechists: a man who joined deep learning to deep humility, and who sought always not to win an argument but to win souls to the truth in charity.
The Collect
O God, who didst adorn blessed Robert, Thy Bishop and Doctor, with wondrous learning and virtue to lay bare the snares of error and to defend the rights of the Apostolic See: grant, by his merits and intercession, that we may grow in the love of truth, and that the hearts of them that err may return to the unity of Thy Church.
Deus, qui ad errórum insídias repelléndas et Apostólicæ Sedis jura propugnánda, beátum Robértum Pontíficem tuum atque Doctórem mira eruditióne et virtúte decorásti: ejus méritis et intercessióne concéde; ut nos in veritátis amóre crescámus, et errántium corda ad Ecclésiæ tuæ rédeant unitátem.
Patronage
He is honoured as a patron of catechists and of catechumens, and is invoked by students and teachers of theology.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 17 September, the day of his death, as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 13 May as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar it falls on 17 September.
Who was Saint Robert Bellarmine?
He was an Italian Jesuit (1542–1621), a cardinal and Archbishop of Capua, and one of the great theologians of the Catholic Reformation. He is honoured as a Doctor of the Church and is remembered for his learning, his short catechisms, and his personal humility and charity.
Why is he a patron of catechists?
Bellarmine wrote two widely used catechisms and laboured all his life to teach the faith clearly and charitably, so the Church commends him to those who hand on Christian doctrine.
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