Daily Mass - Saint Robert Bellarmine

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Rome for my brief stay there, while obtaining a Masters degree at seminary, was to stop at the splendid Jesuit church in the Campus Martius, the church of Saint Ignatius. The video above is a tour of the this beautiful building, and within it, under a side altar, lie the relics in full dress of today's Saint, the bishop Robert Bellarmine, one of the great teachers of the Catholic Reformation at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century. As a Doctor of the Church, he has an entry on my page on those Doctors on this blog (which I'm still building), and I copy that entry here: 

"Born in Montepulciano in the north of Italy, Robert joined the Society of Jesus, specialising in the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the work of the Church Fathers. Ordained in 1570, he taught first in Louvain and then in the Roman College, then a Jesuit institution, and received the chair of apologetics - the science of the defence of the Church and her theology. He therefore became a powerhouse of the so-called 'counter-reformation,' that is, the actual reformation of the Catholic Church, following the Council of Trent. As a teacher in Rome, he had already assembled a course of lessons called the Controversies, but between 1588 and 1594, he was spiritual director and then superior of the community at the Roman College. The Holy Father Clement VIII made him papal theologian and consultor to the Holy Office. One of his most popular works was a short catechism called Christian Doctrine. Clement VIII made him a cardinal in 1599 and archbishop of Capua in 1602. Under the Holy Fathers Leo XI and Paul V, he was recalled to Rome, becoming a member of various curial bodies, such as the Holy Office, the Congregation for Rites and the Congregation for the propagation of the Faith, among other diplomatic appointments. His final works were based on his spiritual exercises in the Ignatian tradition and he died in 1621. 

Saint Robert's Controversies remain a working standard for Catholic ecclesiology, sacramentology and anthropology - addressing protestant challenges - in which he applies reason to the Tradition of the Church, while clearly defining Catholic doctrine. His ministerial work made him a hardworking preacher, as given by his hundreds of homilies in various locations. To this may be added his commentaries on Scripture, and especially the epistles of Saint Paul. And then there are other spiritual works. His theme was (i) personal conversion as a source of every other reform, (ii) devotion to God and (iii) communion with Him."