Robert Bellarmine was the nephew of Pope Marcellus II. At the age of eighteen he entered the Society of Jesus. He became professor of theology at the University of Louvain, where he opposed the teachings of Michel Baius. Later, at the request of Pope Gregory XIII, he taught at the Roman College, where he also served as spiritual director to the young Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. His effectiveness as a teacher was such that Protestants established “Anti-Bellarminian Chairs” in response to his influence.
After serving for a time as provincial of Naples, Bellarmine returned to Rome, where he took on important responsibilities in the Curia. He was made a cardinal, and soon after, archbishop of Capua—a way of removing the Jesuit from Rome during the heated controversy on grace then dividing theologians. After the death of Pope Clement VIII, Robert was called back to Rome, where he exercised great influence as statesman, papal theologian, and prolific writer. People admired above all the simplicity of life with which the cardinal lived.
He died on September 17, 1621. The process of his beatification and canonization, begun immediately, lasted three centuries. Finally, in 1930, Pope Pius XI beatified, canonized, and proclaimed him Doctor of the Church. His body, once venerated at the Church of the Gesù, now rests in the Church of Saint Ignatius in Rome.
