St. Robert Bellarmine was born around the year 1542 in Tuscany. As he was growing up, Bellarmine devoted his scholarly studies to Scripture, study of the Early Church Fathers, and how to improve the state of the Church. He entered the Jesuit order and was ordained to the priesthood in the year 1570. At this time the Reformation was causing turmoil in religious circles and part of Bellarmine's mission was to settle disputes and educate people in the true Faith. Bellarmine educated the faithful with his sermons and with instruction as a professor at Louvain. One of Bellarmine's scholarly writings that still exists is "Disputations on the Controversies."
St. Robert was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII and was lived in the Vatican advising various institutions. Even though he had the opportunity to enjoy the wealth of the Church and the pleasures of Rome, Bellarmine continued to live an austere life of poverty. He ate few fancy meals, gave generously to the poor and gave up all material possessions. Some of examples of his generosity included using his wall hangings to cloth the poor, and also giving them all the extra food of his household.
Throughout his lifetime, Robert was involved in various debates including some looking at the divine rights of kings, the supremacy of the pope and the Galileo controversy. St. Robert Ballaramine died in 1621, was canonized in 1930 and was declared a doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI. He is the patron of catechists and catechumens.