Saint of the Day, September 17: Saint Robert Bellarmine

St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621): Robert was a Jesuit priest and the chair of theology at the Roman College. While teaching, he wrote a number of great works, including several catechisms. He was St. Aloysius Gonzaga's spiritual director, and helped St. Francis de Sales. He went on to become a Provincial, and later a Cardinal. One of the great men of the Counter-Reformation, he was considered for the papacy himself at two successive conclaves, but he felt himself unsuited for the duties and was never elected. St. Robert Bellarmine was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931.

St. Robert Bellarmine