September 17th, Saint Robert Bellarmine

St. Robert Bellarmine

The holy remains  of Saint Robert Bellarmine,  lies by the side of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, his

spiritual son. It was the wish of a spiritual father to be buried close to his spiritual son. It was the custom among the Jesuits of Rome, to wrap the body of the dead Jesuit,  in a shroud and bury in  the ground. However, when Aloysius Gonzaga died, his spiritual director, Saint Robert Bellarmine, was so convinced that the young man was a saint and he persuaded his superiors to place Aloysius’s body in a coffin,  so it could be found easily and moved to a proper shrine after his canonization. The relics of Saint Aloysius are preserved in a side altar of the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome. The bones of the Saint Robert lie in an adjacent altar.  It is a rare instance that the spiritual father and the spiritual son got raised to sainthood and find the final resting place in the same church.

Today, 17th of September, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine.

St. Robert Bellarmine, was one of the most significant cardinals of the Catholic Church. He was born in a poor but noble,  Italian family. His early intellectual accomplishments gave his father hope that Bellarmine would re-establish the family’s status through a political career. However, his mother wanted him to enter the Society of Jesus.

On completion of his studies, Bellarmine taught first at the University of Louvain in Belgium. In 1576, he accepted the invitation of Pope Gregory XIII, to teach theology at the new Roman College.

Robert Bellarmine spent the next 11 years, teaching and writing his great work Disputations on the Controversies, defending the Catholic faith against the arguments of the Protestant reformers. A trusted person to the popes, Bellarmine held a number of positions, including rector of the Roman College, examiner of bishops and Cardinal Inquisitor.

Although he was one of the most powerful men in Rome, Bellarmine lived, a life of simplicity. He gave most of his money to the poor. Once he gave the wall adornment from his living quarters to the poor, saying that the walls wouldn’t catch cold. Though he never cared for himself, he was careful about the well being of all his servants.

St. Robert Bellarmine was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931.