Reliquary theca with relic of Jesuit St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J., Cardinal & Doctor of the Church

Round glass-fronted white-metal reliquary theca housing relic of Saint Robert Bellarmine. The relic is affixed to a red silk ground and identified in Latin on a typeset cedula label as S. Rob. Card. Bellarmine (Saint Robert Bellarmine, Cardinal). On the back, under the protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of the Jesuit Order.

Saint Robert Bellarmine, S.J. (†1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church who was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation. He was a rector of the Roman College and the Archbishop of Capua. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930; the following year he was declared a Doctor of the Church. His remains, in a cardinal's red robes, are displayed behind glass under a side altar in the Church of Saint Ignatius, the chapel of the Roman College, next to the body of his student, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, as he himself had wished. In the General Roman Calendar Saint Robert Bellarmine's feast day is on 17 September and he is a Holy Patron of Bellarmine University; Bellarmine Preparatory School; Fairfield University; Bellarmine College Preparatory; canonists; canon lawyers; catechists; catechumens; and Archdiocese of Cincinnati.