St. Robert Bellarmine at Xavier University is both a parish and a university chapel. As late as the 1940s, students (then all men) were not permitted at parish Masses, but attended student Masses as part of their Jesuit formation and education.

1831
The Athenaeum (men’s high school and college) in downtown Cincinnati formed by Bishop Edward Fenwick–the high school officially separates in 1919

1840
Bishop John Baptist Purcell invites the Society of Jesus to run the Athenaeum, renamed Xavier College; students and faculty continue to worship downtown

1920
Xavier College (renamed University in 1930) moves to the site of the Avondale Athletic Club; worship continues downtown at St. Xavier Church

1927
Robert Bellarmine Parish created; worship is in a chapel at Schmidt Library. The small parish plans for a large Gothic- style church.

1931
Funds saved for a new church are used to help people devastated by the Great Depression; future plans put on hold.

1962
Current small, mid-century modern church design by Albert W. Walters built. It features a self-supporting “saddle roof” (hyperbolic paraboloid)—a curving roof made of straight supports held up, not by the walls, but by underground steel cables.

1969
Xavier University becomes co-ed

1992 and 1998
Chapel remodeled.

The Jesuit Seal over the entrance to Bellarmine Chapel includes the letters IHS (sometimes written IHC)–both a “Christogram” or abbreviation for the name of Christ in Greek and an abbreviation for “Iesus Hominem Salvator” (Jesus, Savior of Mankind) beneath a cross and three nails (sometimes shown piercing Christ’s Sacred Heart). The Christogram and sunburst have been associated with the Society of Jesus since the days of its founder, St. Ignatius Loyola.