Post #5898

SAINT ROBERT BELLARMINE BISHOP, CONFESSOR AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine, born in Montepulciano the 4th of October 1542, of the patrician family of the Bellarmine, had for mother the pious Cinzia Cervini sister of pope Marcellus II. He immediately shone out of exemplary piety and very chaste morals, one thing longing for, to please God alone and to win souls for Christ. He attended the city college of the Society of Jesus with great praise of ingenuity and modesty; and, at the age of eighteen, having entered Rome in the same Society, he was an example to all of religious virtues. After completing his philosophy course at the Roman College, he was first sent to Florence, then to Mondovì, then to Padua to study sacred theology and finally to Louvain where, not yet a priest, he magnificently performed the office of preacher (1569-1576).