St Charles Borromeo

Bishop Confessor (1538-1584)

Saint of the day November 4

The 2nd son of Count Giberto Borromeo and Margherita de’ Medici, sister of Pope Pius IV, St Charles received the tonSure at age 12 and his doctorate in Civil and Canon Law at 21. Called lo Rome by his uncle Pope Pius 1V in 1560, he was made administrator of the Papal States, Cardinal Deacon and Papal legate. At 22, though still only a Deacon, he was appointed Administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan. At the Pope’s command the suspended Ecumenical Council of Trent was reassembled and, with Charles as the “very soul of the Council”, enacted specific clarifications of doctrine and Church reform. Charles, who had meanwhile been ordained priest, was now consecrated Archbishop of Milan but was detained in Rome for a while to revise the Roman Catechism, Missal and Breviary, as well as to reform Church music and the Roman Curia in accordance with the Council’s decrees. In Milan he instituted the greatest simplicity and economy, sold his valuable furniture and three-armed galleys, limited his food to one meal a day just bread, water and some dried figs and his sleep, to four hours. “It is not necessary that I become an aged Bishop, but a good one!” he once said.

Probably the most influential figure of the counter Reformation, Charles crowded an unbelievable amount of work into his remaining 19 years of life. He reformed his 3,000 clergy, founded and endowed six exemplary seminaries, and the Swiss College in Milan which did for Switzerland what Douai was doing for England. Lay catechists for his Confraternity of Christian Doctrine prepared children for the sacraments. In remote villages he instituted nev parishes and monasteries, won innumerable souls from witchcraft and heresy, preached, and distributed Holy Communion for hours at a stretch. A new spirit animated clergy and laity when it was seen that he did not hesitate to even sit by the roadside and instruct an old man or some children. When the plague raged in Milan for two years, Charles calmly made his will, prepared himself for death, and then proceeded to visit the hospitals and homes of the victims. During a great famine he provided food daily for over 3,000 poor people, even going into debt for them when his own funds and those he had solicited from others were exhausted.

Born at Rocca d’Arona, near Lago Maggiore on 2 October 1538, Charles Borromeo died on 3 November 1584 at Milan aged 46. Canonized by Pope Paul V on 1 November 1610, he is venerated as the patron of catechists and is invoked against pestilence.