St. Robert Bellamine
Arms: Gules, six pine cones reversed Or.
SOURCES, NOTES, and CREDITS: “Heraldica Collegii Cardinalium” a Roll of Arms of the College of Cardinals, Volume 1, 1198-1799, by Michael Francis McCarthy, Page 336;
“Hell and its Torments” St. Robert Bellarmine, Tan Books, 1990; Wikipedia Internet article on Robert Bellarmine; Internet article of U.S. Catholic, “Chronological list of Doctors of the Church”. Brief quote and paraphrases from these sources by D. Wedvick.
St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J. ( Italian ) Roberto Bellarmino born 4 Oct 1542, the son of noble but impoverished parents: Vincenzo and Cinzia Bellarmino in Montepulciano, Italy. Even at an early age he was noted to be extremely intelligent, a quick and adsorbing learner as well as pious. His theological studies at Padua and at Louvain University centered on Thomism. After he was ordained around 1569 he gained a reputation as a professor and preacher. He taught at the Louvain University on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. Around 1574 he gave five lectures, at the age of 32, regarding “The four last things”: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. The lectures were delivered to academic students at the University. Recently, we read the lecture on “Hell and its Torments” and found it to be very scary indeed and prompting us to this entry ! Bellarmine wrote in the time of the Reformation: doctrinal defenses of the Church, catechisms, ecclesiology and the relations between Church and State.
Bellarmine was made a cardinal on 3 March 1599 by Pope Clement VIII, and
Archbishop of Capua, Italy in 1602. He died on 17 Sep 1621, age 78, in Rome.
Bellarmine was beatified on 13 May 1923 early in the reign of Pope Pius XI and was
Canonized as a saint on 29 June 1930 by the same Pope in Rome. He was named a Doctor of the Church in 1931.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
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