Patron Saint

Born in 1542, Saint Robert Bellarmine, S.J. (feast day, September 17) was a Cardinal and Doctor of the Universal Church and is the Patron Saint of Fairfield University. He was one of the most learned men of his time, and his books were such a powerful vindication of the Catholic Church that Queen Elizabeth I forbade her subjects from publishing or selling them under pain of death. A very popular orator, he could memorize an hour-long Latin sermon by reading it over once. He had the ability to simplify the great truths of theology and put them within range of ordinary people. Bellarmine confronted the Protestant Reformers and justified the right of the Catholic Church to defend herself and the faith, to meet moral issues and to somehow guide and correct the temporal order.

In spite of his protests, the Pope made him a Cardinal "because he was without equal for leaning in the Church of God." From this new vantage point, he set about to root out the abuses which gave the Reformers grounds for their criticisms of the Church, and he presented to Pope Clement VIII a denunciation of the major abuses prevalent in the Pope's own Roman Curia. He also pointed out that the Pope was not the Church's overlord but its administrator. Only Pope Sixtus V's death prevented him from putting some of Bellarmine's writings on the list of forbidden books after Bellarmine opposed the Pope's theory of direct papal power over civil authority.

Bellarmine's concern for education was apparent from the letters he wrote urging careful training of mathematics teachers. Galileo invited Bellarmine to see the new-found wonders of the sky in his telescope and later Bellarmine turned to Jesuit scientists to confirm Galileo's findings. This resulted in Bellarmine's gentle treatment of Galileo at his trial - which did not please the Holy Office.

It is hard to imagine anyone with better qualifications to be the patron of Fairfield University not only because of his brilliant scholarship offered freely in the service of others, but also because of his commitment to intellectual integrity. In fact, his theories of government are reflected in the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

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