At age fifteen, Robert Bellarmine, a youth with an eager mind and a gift for words, enrolls in a new school run by the young order of Jesuits who have just arrived in his Italian hilltop town. Inspired by the Jesuits’ life of voluntary poverty and refusal of Church honors, Robert enters the Jesuits in 1560 at the age of eighteen. He soon proves himself an effective preacher and teacher employing both humor and intelligence. In some of his pulpits, however, he is so short he needs to stand on a box to be seen by his listeners. As his teaching and writings become well known in the turbulent disputes between Catholics and Protestants, the Pope begins to rely on him for many important tasks. In the end, being a Jesuit does not protect Robert from receiving Church honors, although he is an unusual cardinal. His care for the poor causes him to be openhanded to the point of giving away his own mattress—twice!

This biography for young readers paints a picture of St. Robert Bellarmine—later proclaimed a Doctor of the Church—as a man of intellect and generosity, steadily serving God in humble and exalted positions alike.

By Eleanore M. Jewett
Illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman