Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a professor of theology and later, rector of the Roman College, and in 1602 became Archbishop of Capua. Robert supported the reform decrees of the Council of Trent. He is also widely remembered for his role in the Giordano Bruno affair, the Galileo affair, and the trial of Friar Fulgenzio Manfredi.

Bellarmine was born in Montepulciano, and his parents were Vincenzo Bellarmine and Cinzia Cervini, who was the sister of Pope Marcellus II. He entered the Roman Jesuit novitiate in 1560, remaining in Rome for three years. He then went to a Jesuit house at Mondovì, in Piedmontto learn Greek.

In 1569, he was sent to the University of Leuven in Brabant. There he was ordained and obtained a reputation both as a professor and as a preacher. He was the first Jesuit to teach at the University. In 1576, he made a journey to Italy under poor health. Here he remained, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to lecture on polemical theology in the new Roman College, now known as the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Bellarmine was made rector of the Roman College in 1592, examiner of bishops in 1598, and cardinal in 1599. Immediately after his appointment as Cardinal, Pope Clement made him a Cardinal Inquisitor, in which capacity he served as one of the judges at the trial of Giordano Bruno and concurred in the decision which condemned Bruno to be burned at the stake as a heretic.

In 1602 he was made archbishop of Capua. He had written against pluralism and non-residence of bishops within their dioceses. As bishop, he put into effect the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent.

In 1616, on the orders of Paul V, Bellarmine summoned Galileo, notified him of a forthcoming decree of the Congregation of the Index condemning the Copernican doctrine of the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, and ordered him to abandon it. Galileo agreed to do so.

Towards the end of his life, Bellarmine retired to Sant'Andrea degli Scozzesi, the Jesuit college of Saint Andrew in Rome. He died on 17 September 1621, aged 78.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Agatholica
2. Saint Columba of Cordova
3. Saint Justin of Rome
4. Saint Peter Arbues
5. Saint Stephen