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Bert's Name Day
29th April |
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Historically Famous BertsThere is a melancholy list of Roberts among the English Catholic martyrs of the Reformation, of whom the poet Robert Southwell is the most famous, but there are the happier lives of St Robert of Molesme and St Robert Bellarmine to recount. St Robert of Molesme was an eleventh-century monk who founded a monastery in Burgundy at Molesme, but who eventually became one of the co-founders of the great Cistertian monastery at Citeaux. He was the Abbot there for 18 months, but then returned to Molesme, where he ruled as Abbot until his death at the age of 84. His feast is celebrated on 29 April. Robert Bellarmine was one of the greatest Jesuit scholars of the Renaissance, and may take some credit for being sympathetic to (although not completely persuaded by) Galileo during the scientist's persecution by the Church. His feast day is 17 September. |