Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints for September 17
- Robert Bellarmine, bishop and Doctor of the Church;
- Stigmata of Francis;
- Socrates and Stephen, martyrs;
- Satyrus;
- Lambert of Maestricht, bishop and martyr;
- Columba, virgin and martyr;
- Hildegard, virgin and Doctor of the Church;
- Peter Arbues, martyr;
- Francis of Camporosso
Robert Bellarmine (died 1621 A.D.): Tuscan; brilliant S.J. scholar, preacher, writer and systematic apologist of the Counter Reformation; most noted for his Catechism and Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei; involved in Galileo affair; cardinal archbishop of Capua; patron of catechists and catechumens.
St. Robert Bellarmine is one of the Doctors of the Church. Learn more of the other Saints whom the Church declared with this title.
The stigmata of St. Francis is memorialized every September 17. This is the estimated date when St. Francis of Assisi received the gift of the stigmata at Mount La Verna in 1224 A.D. One of his spiritual sons, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, also received the stigmata - the wounds of Christ in the physical body. St. Catherine of Siena also received the wounds of Christ but it is not physically visible.
St. Hildegard of Bingen was called "the Sybil of the Rhine" for her powers as a seeress and prophetess. Her best known work is Scivias which records twenty-six of her visions. Together with John of Avila, both were declared Doctors of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis also declared two new Doctors of the Church: St. Gregory of Narek and St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
