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Why Sept. 17 is a holiday in Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV’s ‘name day’ explained
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In Short: Pope Leo XIV celebrated his name day on September 17, honoring St. Robert Bellarmine, a 17th-century Jesuit cardinal and Doctor of the Church.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated his 71st birthday on September 14, but in Vatican City, the more significant celebration comes three days later, on September 17, the day of his namesake, St. Robert Bellarmine, a 17th-century Jesuit cardinal and Doctor of the Church.
Born Robert Prevost, Pope Leo XIV shares his given name with Bellarmine, who died on September 17, 1621, and whose life exemplified daily holiness and the importance of preaching the faith.
In southern Italy, it is common to celebrate one’s ‘onomastico,’ or name day, in addition to one’s birthday, offering a moment of double celebration for Pope Leo XIV.
During a Vatican conference on modern Christian martyrs, Pope Leo XIV praised the witness of those killed for their faith, emphasizing the importance of presenting the faith as a way of life rather than an ideology.
The pontiff held a private audience at the Vatican on September 17, and the conference, organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, discussed the ecumenical initiative ‘Commission for New Martyrs — Witnesses of the Faith’ established by Pope Francis in 2023.
Pope Leo XIV also reflected on the impact of the U.S. terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, on Christian persecution in Europe, noting the escalation of conflicts at the international level since those years.
In his address, Pope Leo XIV praised the dicastery’s work cataloging the lives of Christians killed for their faith, highlighting the evangelizing power of their simple, daily holiness and the importance of presenting the faith in a way that resonates with everyday life.
What's still developing
- “Twenty-five years ago, on Sept. 11, we remember the attacks on the Twin Towers. We remember the airplane that struck the Pentagon in Washington. From those years onward, there was an escalation of conflicts at the international level,” Regoli said.
- Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, delivers an address at the conference “The 21st Century: A New Time of Martyrs?” held at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome from Sept.
- The feast of St. George, April 23, was observed as a holiday under Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, while the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, held that place during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger.
- “The burdensome offices of governance did not prevent (Bellarmine) from striving daily for holiness, faithful to the demands of his own state as a religious, priest and bishop,” Pope Benedict said, noting that this fidelity drove St. Bellarmine to preach “assiduously” across Flanders, Rome, Naples and Capua.
- For Pope Leo XIV, the coincidence of a birthday and a name day falling in the same week offers a moment of double celebration, as well as some surprisingly relevant lessons on Church governance, administration, and holiness for a pope from the saint whose name he has borne for 71 years.
- Born in 1542 into a prominent Tuscan family and a nephew of a pope, he entered the Society of Jesus shortly before his 18th birthday.
Sources
- OSV Newslink