Feast Day of Saint Robert Bellarmine in Vatican Date in the current year: September 17, 2025

Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost on September 14, 1955. According to the General Roman Calendar, Robert’s name day is on September 17, in honor of Saint Robert Bellarmine. Several Catholic saints have the name Robert, but Saint Robert Bellarmine’s feast day falls closest to the pope’s birthday.

Bellarmine was born on October 4, 1542, in Montepulciano, to a noble but impoverished family. His mother was the sister of Marcello Cervini, who became Pope Marcellus II in 1555. Bellarmine entered the Jesuit novitiate in Rome in 1560 and was sent to a Jesuit house in Mondovì three years later. There, he became acquainted with the renowned preacher Francis Adorno, who recommended that Bellarmine study theology at the University of Padua.

After two years in Padua, Bellarmine continued his studies at the University of Leuven, where he was ordained in 1570. He became the university’s first Jesuit professor and gained a reputation as a professor and preacher. After seven years in Leuven, Bellarmine returned to Italy in 1576 where Pope Gregory XIII commissioned him to teach at the Roman College.

He became rector of the Roman College in 1592, examiner of bishops in 1598, and a cardinal and Cardinal Inquisitor in 1599. As Cardinal Inquisitor, Bellarmine was one of the judges who condemned Giordano Bruno to be burned at the stake for heresy. In 1602, he became the archbishop of Capua.

Bellarmine was one of the clergymen involved in the Galileo affair. He did not oppose heliocentrism as long as it was considered a useful mathematical model for astronomical calculations. However, he rejected it as a physical reality unless definitive proof was presented. In 1616, under Pope Paul V’s instructions, Bellarmine ordered Galileo to abandon heliocentrism.

Bellarmine died on September 17, 1621, at the age of 78, and was buried in the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome. He was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. Bellarmine was also named a Doctor of the Church, a title given to Catholic saints noted for their significant contributions to theology or doctrine. One of Bellarmine’s most notable works, which earned him this title, is Disputationes de Controversiis, a three-volume work on dogmatics that systematizes religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. The work is considered the foremost defense of the Catholic Church’s doctrine, especially papal supremacy.

After the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025, the feast day of Saint Robert Bellarmine became a public holiday in the Vatican, honoring the longstanding custom of treating the reigning pope’s name day as a holiday. It replaced the former name-day holiday of Pope Francis, Saint George’s Day on April 23 (Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; Jorge is the Spanish equivalent of George).