| Saints & Angels

Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) + Cardinal, theolo­gian, and a notable figure in the Catholic Reformation. Born at Monte Pulciano, in Tuscany, Italy, he studied under the Jesuits and then entered the Society of Jesus in 1560. Ordained in 1570 at Louvain, Belgium, he served there as a professor of theology and became firmly convinced of the need for superior training in theology in order to defend Catholic doctrines prop­erly against the Protestant intellectuals in Northern Europe. He thus departed for Rome in 1576, becoming a professor of theology at the Collegium Romanum, the newly founded Jesuit school in the Eternal City. Made a cardinal in 1599 by Pope Clement VIII (r. 1592-1605), he became the archbishop of Capua in 1602. He re­mained a leading figure in Rome and a trusted theo­logical advisor to the Holy See. In 1605, he was named head of the Vatican Library. Thus he took part in the controversy over Galileo and called upon Church offi­ cials to declare the Copemican theory to be “false and erroneous,” while urging Galileo to abandon his de ­

fense of the theory because of the controversy it might create, most so with the Protestants.

From the time of his teaching at the Louvain, Rob­ ert was one of Catholicism’s most ardent defenders and a brilliant controversialist against the Protestants, pro ­ viding a famous definition of the Catholic Church: “The one and true Church is the assembly of men, bound together by the profession of the same sacraments, un ­ der the rule of legitimate pastors, and in particular the see of the Vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman Pontiff.” Feast day: September 17.