Saint Robert Bellarmine, whose feast is tomorrow, was a Jesuit priest who became a cardinal and one of history’s most outstanding scholars. He’s patron of the chapel at Xavier University. Here are some of this great teacher’s words on charity:

• “On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus.”

• “Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved.”

• “If then we should begin, the grace of God inspiring us, to love God for His own sake and our neighbors for God’s sake, we shall then not be of this world: and as our love increases, our greed will diminish; for charity cannot increase without the other diminishing.”

• “If one is inclined to contend that, taking the strict letter of the law, he is not bound to give his superfluous riches to the poor; he is obliged to do so, at least by the law of charity.”