13 MAY - SAINT ROBERT BELLARMINE (Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

Robert Bellarmine was born in 1542, at Montepulciano in Italy, to Vincenzo Bellarmino and Cynthia Cervini, the sister of Cardinal Marcello Cervini who became Pope Marcellus II. Robert entered the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus) in 1560 and after studying philosophy and theology, quickly acquired a reputation as a professor and preacher. In 1570 he was ordained a priest and in 1576 he was entrusted with the chair of Controversies just established at the Roman College which later became the Pontifical Gregorian University. Bellarmine’s lectures led to his monumental work De Controversiis which proved such a challenge to Protestantism in Germany and England that special chairs were founded to reply to it.

In 1592 Bellarmine was made Rector of the Roman College, and in 1595 Provincial of Naples. In 1597 Pope Clement VIII made him his own theologian and Examiner of Bishops and Consultor of the Holy Office. In 1599 he was made Cardinal-Priest Titular of the Church of Santa Maria in Via Lata. Bellarmine successfully promoted the cause for the beatification of Aloysius Gonzaga who had died in 1591 at the Roman College. He also sat on the final commission that was responsible for the revision of Saint Jerome’s translation of the Bible into Vulgate Latin. Bellarmine died on the 17th of September 1621, the day which at his request had been set aside for the feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Robert Bellarmine was canonised in 1930 and declared to be a Doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI.

O God who filled blessed Robert, your bishop and doctor, with wondrous learning and virtue that he might break the snares of errors and defend the Apostolic See: grant us by his merits and intercession that we may grow in the love of truth and that the hearts of those in error may return to the unity of your Church. Through our Lord ...

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, in the time of the emperor Phocas, the dedication of the church of St. Mary of the Martyrs, formerly a temple of all the gods called the Pantheon, which was purified and dedicated by the blessed Pope Boniface IV to the honour of the Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, and of all the martyrs.

At Constantinople, under the emperor Diocletian and the proconsul Laudicius, the blessed Lucius, a priest and martyr, who first at Amphipolis endured many tribulations and torments for the confession of Christ, and then being led to Byzantium, suffered capital punishment.

At Heraclea, the martyr St. Glyceria, a native of Rome, who suffered under the emperor Antoninus and the governor Sabinus.

At Alexandria, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who were killed by the Arians for the Catholic faith in the church of St. Theonas.

At Maestricht, St. Servatius, bishop of Tongres, whose grave, as a public sign of his merit, was free from snow during winter (though everything around was covered with it), until the inhabitants built a church over it.

In Palestine, St. John the Silent.

At Valladolid, St. Peter Regalati, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor, restorer of regular discipline in the monasteries of Spain. He was numbered among the saints by Pope Benedict XIV.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.