THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE

We are proud to present St. Robert Bellarmine’s autobiography for the first time in English.

Bellarmine never set out to compose any writings, but always did so out of obedience. He wrote his autobiography for 2 of his brother Jesuits out of courtesy for their request to have an account of his life. Though he never intended it for any eyes but theirs, it was discovered and published in the 18th century, and became a great success. It is a brief and simple account of the life and travails of a great soul that loved Jesus Christ above all things.

It has value both as the only account of his life currently in English and to researchers who do not have command of Latin to read the original. We have added several footnotes and appendixes to help fill in information that everyone in Bellarmine’s time knew, and as such he felt no need to elaborate on, but today is not so well known. Bellarmine was in the thick of very serious historical events, such as the Sixth War of Religion in France, or his stormy relationship with the imperious Pope Sixtus V.

Nevertheless, to compensate for the shortness we have added another treat, St. Robert Bellarmine’s Guide to Composing Sermons and evidence of this in action, his Sermons on the Annunciation given in Italy. Neither of these have been translated before, and the sermons have scarcely ever been seen in Latin except by a few researchers.

These sermons explore the depths of the mysteries contained in the Annunciation made by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, which were preached in Italy while he was a Cardinal in Rome. These explore subjects as diverse as Greek and Hebrew etymology, Angelology, Mariology and the fulfillment of the Old Covenant in Christ. We have also added pictures of the places and people St. Robert mentions when relating his life!