Saint of the day, September 17

September 17 - St. Robert Bellarmine

Born: October 4, 1542
Died: September 17, 1621
Nationality: Italian
Vocation: Jesuit priest, bishop, and cardinal
Patronage: Catechists and catechumens
Canonization: 1930 by Pope Pius XI

St. Robert Bellarmine was blessed with an extraordinary mind, but his greatest desire was to use it to know, love, and serve God more deeply.

Born in Italy in 1542, Robert entered the Jesuits at 18 and soon distinguished himself through his love of learning. After his ordination to the priesthood, he spent years teaching theology, first at Louvain and later in Rome, where he also served as a spiritual director to the young St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

Robert lived at a time of great division within Christianity, and his studies became a way of serving the Church he loved. Drawing deeply from Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers, he devoted himself to explaining and defending the Catholic faith. His best-known work, Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith, grew out of that work and became influential throughout Europe.

As greater responsibilities followed, Robert tried to keep the simplicity of his religious life. Even after becoming a cardinal, he lived modestly and shared what he had with the poor. His learning had brought him into the highest levels of the Church, but it never became an end in itself.

That same desire to seek God remained with Robert into the final years of his life, when he wrote more deeply about prayer, the Cross, and preparing for eternity. After a lifetime spent studying the faith, he continued turning his heart toward the One he had spent so many years seeking to understand.

St. Robert Bellarmine’s life invites us to place whatever gifts God has given us back into His hands. Our talents may look very different from Robert’s, but each can become a way of loving the Lord and serving others when we use it for Him.

St. Robert Bellarmine, pray for us!

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