San Carlos Borromeo

 Saint Charles Borromeo was born on October 2, 1538 at the castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore
near Milan.
 His father was the Count of Arona and his mother a member of the House of Medici. He was the
third of six children born to the couple.
 Charles was a descendant of nobility: the Borromeo family was one of the most ancient and
wealthy in Lombardy, made famous by several notable men, both in the church and state. The
family coat of arms included the Borromean rings, which are sometimes taken to symbolize the
Holy Trinity. Charles' father Gilbert was Count of Arona.
 At the age of 12, the young Count Charles Borromeo dedicated himself to a life of service to the
Church. His uncle gave him the family income from the Benedictine abbey of Saints Gratinian
and Felinus. He was explicit in telling his father that he could only keep the money required for
his education and to prepare him for service to the Church. All other funds belonged to the poor
of the Church and were to be passed along to them.
 The young count suffered from a speech impediment that made him appear slow to those who
did not know him. Despite this challenge, he performed well and impressed his teachers. He
attended the University of Pavia and learned Latin. He was praised because he was hardworking
and thorough.
 In 1554 his father passed away and although Charles was a teenager, responsibility for his
household fell to him and although he had an elder brother, Count Federico, he was requested
by the family to take the management of their domestic affairs. After a time, he resumed his
studies, and on 6 December 1559, in his studies and earned a doctorate in canon and civil law.
 His responsibility for his household resulted in financial difficulties, and Charles earned a
reputation for being short of funds.
 Life sped up for him after his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici became Pope Pius IV on
December 25, 1559. The new pope asked his nephew to come to Rome and appointed him as a
cardinal-deacon. With the rank came the job of assisting and advising his uncle full-time. A
month later, Pope Pius IV made his nephew a cardinal.
 Always clear and precise in his views, firm in his demeanor, and constant in the execution of his
projects,said Pope Pius IV
 The young Borromeo used his leadership role in the Vatican to promote learning and he
established a literary academy. He wrote of some of the lessons and lectures in the book, Noctes
Vaticanae.
 Charles organized the third and last session of the Council of Trent, in 1562-63. He had a large
share in the making of the Tridentine Catechism (Catechismus Romanus). In 1561, Borromeo
founded and endowed a college at Pavia, today known as Almo Collegio Borromeo, which he
dedicated to St. Justina of Padua.
 In 1562 his brother died and his family urged him to leave the service of the church to preserve
the family name. However, Borromeo refused. He became more insistent upon becoming a good
bishop and in compelling others to lead exemplary lives of clerical service.
 Borromeo's pledge to live a holier life after his brother's death was fulfilled in his adopting a
simple standard of living. He gave away much of his substantial revenue to the poor.
 It causes him to be more strict and operative Christian life, and his aim became to put into
practice the dignity and duties of the bishop as drafted by the recent Council of Trent.
 Under the auspices of that council, beginning in 1563 Borromeo supervised the writing of an
accurate catechism, rewrote liturgical texts and music, and began enforcing clerical reform in
 Rome. Pope Pius IV named Borromeo archbishop of Milan but kept him in Rome performing a
multitude of official functions.
 Borromeo was ordained first to the order of deacon. Then, he was ordained to the holy
priesthood on September 4, 1563. Then, he was ordained as a bishop on December 7, 1563. He
became Archbishop of Milan in May 12, 1564.
 The city had seen no resident bishop for 80 years. Borromeo immediately called a synod of his
bishops to inform them of the new decrees. Setting an example of personal frugality and order,
Borromeo reduced his household staff, forbade his retainers to accept any presents, and sold
some of his property to help feed the poor.
 In 1566, Archbishop Borromeo's benefactor and uncle, Pope Pius IV died. As an idealistic
reformer in Rome, he continued that mission in Milan. Milan was the largest diocese in the
Catholic Church at the time with more than 3,000 clergy and 800,000 people. Both its clergy and
laity had drifted from church teaching and corruption was rampant.
 The driving out of corruption was a critical matter during Borromeo's time. The Protestant
Reformation was spreading throughout northern Europe and constantly threatened to move
south. The only defense was to reform and restore the integrity to the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Borromeo saw this clearly and he made this his mission.
 His strategy was to provide education to many clergy he saw as ignorant. He founded schools
and seminaries and colleges for clergy.
 The selling of indulgences and ecclesiastical positions was prevalent; monasteries were "full of
disorder"; many religious were "lazy, ignorant, and debauched".
 He ordered monasteries to reform themselves. He made a lot of visits to various locations to
inspect for himself. He ordered the simplification of church interiors, which was a major point of
contention between some Catholics and Protestants. The complex and busy interiors were
claimed to be a distraction from the worship of God. This danger was acknowledged during the
Council of Trent which Archbishop Borromeo enforced. Even tombs belonging to his own
relatives were cleared of inappropriate ornaments and embellishments.
 He extended his reforms to the collegiate churches, monasteries and even to the Confraternities
of Penitents, particularly that of St. John the Baptist. This group was to attend to prisoners and
those condemned to death, to give them help and support.
 Before Charles went to Milan, while he was overseeing reform in Rome, a nobleman remarked
that the latter city was no longer a place to enjoy oneself or to make a fortune. "Carlo Borromeo
has undertaken to remake the city from top to bottom,"he said, predicting that the reformer's
enthusiasm "would lead him to correct the rest of the world once he has finished with Rome."
 Once Borromeo arrived in his own diocese, he was forced to excommunicate and imprison some
Milanese nobles, including some civil authorities, for defying his new policies.
 Borromeo also teaches crucial fairness. Evenhanded in his demands, he expected the same
compliance with Council of Trent reforms from everyone. Bishops and priests alike had to
dismiss their female relatives from their households; all schoolteachers—no exceptions—were
required to make public professions of faith; every workingman who was apprehended in the
street by one of the Archbishops fisherson Sunday was escorted to catechism class. Borromeo
reminds us that the rules must be the same for all, and that we will not succeed if we make
exceptions and play favorites.
 His emphasis on Catholic learning greatly increased the preparation of men for the priesthood
and benefited their congregations.
 The new archbishop's efforts for catechesis and the instruction of youth included the initiation of
the first Sunday Schoolclasses and the work of the Confraternity in Christian Doctrine.
  He began preaching in churches and monasteries, combining exhortation with intimidation.He
also addressed the backsliding of laypeople, curtailing Sunday entertainments and requiring that
all teachers profess the faith.
 His work of cleaning up the Church also made him enemies. On one occasion a member of a
small, decrepit order known as the "Humiliati"attempted to assassinate him with a pistol, but
missed.
 Some members of that society formed a conspiracy against his life, and a shot was fired at him in
the archiepiscopal chapel. His survival was considered miraculous.
 Many of his subordinates and secular officials complained about the Archbishop throughout his
career. However, the existence of these enemies only emboldened Borromeo and served as
confirmation that his efforts to eradicate corruption were working.
 In 1576 a famine struck Milan due to failed rice cops followed by the plague, and many of the
wealthy and powerful fled the city. The city's trade fell off, and along with it the people's source
of income. Archbishop Borromeo remained. He used his own fortune to feed the starving
people. When that money was spent, he took loans and went deep into debt. He may have fed
70,000 people per day. Eventually, the Archbishop convinced the local governor to return to his
post and care for the people.
 Charles took the initiative in giving good example. He allotted most of his income to charity,
forbade himself all luxury, and imposed severe penances upon himself. He sacrificed wealth,
high honors, esteem, and influence to become poor.
 All that he reserved for himself out of his almost boundless revenues was straw upon which to
sleep. Literally all—everything that he had he gave either to public good works or to private
charities. He was obliged, owing to his station, to live in splendour befitting his rank as
Archbishop, but under his gorgeous robes of scarlet and ermine he wore a poor threadbare black
cassock, and at the banquets which he gave for others, as part of his unlimited hospitality, he
himself took only his habitual dry bread and water.
 In 1583, Archbishop Borromeo traveled to Switzerland and began work suppressing heresy
there. Protestant heresies, along with witchcraft and sorcery had been widely reported.During
his pastoral visit to the region, 150 people were arrested for practicing witchcraft. Eleven women
and the provost were condemned to be burned alive.
 He founded the Collegium Helveticum to serve and educate Swiss Catholics.
 Eventually, the Archbishop's life of work and toil began to take its toll. In 1584, he became ill with
a fever. He returned to Milan where his conditioned worsened. When it became obvious he
would die, he was given his last Sacraments. He died on November 3, at the age of 46.
 He was beatified on May 12, 1602 by Pope Paul V. He was subsequently canonized by Pope Paul
V on November 1, 1610.
 St. Charles Borromeo's feast day is celebrated on November 4. He is the patron of bishops,
catechists, Lombardy, Italy, Monterey, California, cardinals, seminarians, spiritual leaders, and
Sao Carlos in Brazil. St. Charles Borromeo

Influence on English affairs

 Charles had also been involved in English affairs when he assisted Pius IV.
 Many English Catholics had fled to Italy at this time because of the persecutions under Queen
Elizabeth I. He gave pastoral attention to English Catholics who fled to Italy to escape the new
laws against the Catholic faith.
  Saint Edmund Campion, a Jesuit, along with Saint Ralph Sherwin visited him at Milan in 1580 on
their way to England. They stayed with him for eight days, talking with him every night after
dinner.
 The archbishop carried on his person a small picture of John Fisher, who, with Thomas More,
had been executed during the reign of Henry VIII, and for whom he held a great veneration.
 During the nineteenth-century Catholic restoration in England, Cardinal Wiseman was to
institute an order of Oblates of St Charles, led by Henry Edward Manning, as a congregation of
secular priests directly supporting the Archbishop of Westminster.

Controversy and last days

 Borromeo was described by a biographer as an austere, dedicated, humorless and

uncompromising personality. Charged with implementing the reforms dictated by the Council of
Trent, his uncompromising stance brought him into conflict with secular leaders, priests, and
even the Pope. He met with much opposition to his reforms. The governor of the province and
many of the senators addressed complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid.

Veneration

 The Milanese celebrated his anniversary as though he were already a saint, and supporters in a
number of cities collected documentation to support his canonization.
 In 1602 Clement VIII beatified Charles. In 1604 his case was sent on to the Congregation of Rites.
 On 1 November 1610, Paul V canonized Charles. Three years later, the church added his feast to
the General Roman Calendar for celebration on 4 November. Along with Guarinus of Palestrina
and perhaps Anselm of Lucca, he is one of only two or three cardinal-nephews to have been
canonized.
 Charles Borromeo is the patron saint of bishops, catechists and seminarians.

Iconography

 Borromeo's emblem is the Latin word humilitas (humility), which is a portion of the Borromeo
shield. He is usually represented in art in his robes, barefoot, carrying the cross as archbishop, a
rope around his neck, one hand raised in blessing, thus recalling his work during the plague.

Another Source:

Blending Tough Love and Personal Integrity

 Those teachers and educational administrators who have had the experience of implementing
unpopular reforms, however, are likely to be more empathetic.
 Sometimes, for the greater good of our parish or our school, we must oversee change. Our
administrators or religious leaders may have seen that our organization needs to be
reinvigorated and may have chosen us to translate the reforms to others.
 Students in catechism classes may not be receiving the information and inspiration that they
need; colleagues may have become lazy and/or resentful about attending necessary training
sessions, meeting with students, or preparing their classes. Curriculum requirements may be
falling by the wayside.
  If we supervise teachers, we will try, of course, to sway them first by cheerful encouragement
that suggests optimism about their worth. But sometimes that is not enough. When our
encouragement falls on deaf ears and change doesnt happen, we may find ourselves issuing
ultimatums: If you dont attend this training class, begin preparing lessons more thoroughly, use
religious education time more to the purpose, etc., well have to replace you.
 When we must say such things, we will likely hear bitter criticism, may be called unreasonable,
because drawing a line and demanding, say, that teachers attend a crucial training session can
raise as many hackles as requiring monks to return to their cloisters. Being tough, even when
necessary, can hurt the person who initiates reform.
 In such situations, Borromeo can offer us crucial inspiration and some very specific advice about
tough love. For the larger good of the church during a time when it was beleaguered, he knew
that he had to sacrifice his own popularity. His example demonstrates that we must be brave in
Gods service. Ultimately, the catechists, the students we serve will thank us.
 Borromeos life reminds us teacher/administrators that we cannot be hypocrites. If we expect to
reinvigorate our organization, we must model that reform in our own lives. While others may be
displeased with us at first, and while we may face hard words, we must take courage and know
that the larger cause for which we work is worth the effort, and the pain.

Another Source:

 If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with
new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no
other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor.
 I admit that we are all weak, but if we want help, the Lord God has given us the means to find it
easily. Would you like me to teach you how to grow from virtue to virtue and how, if you are
already recollected at prayer, you can be even more attentive next time, and so give God more
pleasing worship? Listen, and I will tell you. If a tiny spark of God's love already burns within you,
do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out. Keep the stove tightly shut so that it will
not lose its heat and grow cold. In other words, avoid distractions as well as you can. Stay quiet
with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.
 If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is
necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not,
people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only
cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.
 We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: "I will pray, and
then I will understand."
 This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day,
which, after all, are part of our work. In meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in
ourselves and in other men.

Another source:

 We should keep in mind that Borromeo wasn't even a priest at this time. It was a common
practice to confer the cardinal's hat on one's nephew (thus, the term "nepotism,"from the Italian
word for nephew, nipote) and even to hand over the administration of a diocese to a layman.

Another Souce:
  For a reformer he pre-eminently was. He spared not himself, his rule over himself was of the
strictest, but he insisted upon and with all his power enforced the restoration of discipline in the
Orders, which had fallen into days of corruption and laxity, of dishonesty and sloth and
immorality.
 Late on a November afternoon San Carlo was celebrating the evening service in his own chapel.
He was on his knees at the altar; behind him the people were intoning an anthem, when the
shot rang out which Fra Farina had aimed from behind a door. It struck fairly, but though some of
the smaller shots penetrated his clothing and bruised his back, the bullet was deflected by the
heavy gold embroidery on San Carlo's cope.
 His love of his people was that which brought about the most wonderful act of San Carlo
Borromeo's beautiful life.
 He replied that a shepherd's place was with his flock. He returned, and for the entire period of
the plague, which carried away thousands, he preached daily, and prayed with his people and for
them. He tended the sick, distributing medicines and performing the last rites for the dying, and
helped to bury the dead; he gave himself, body, soul, and spirit.
 Time and again he walked barefoot to the cathedral with a halter round his neck, and before the
altar offered himself as a sacrifice for his congregation. Twenty-eight of his priests, fired by his
enthusiasm of self-forgetfulness, assisted him in his angelic ministry, and not one of these, nor
San Carlo himself, was touched by the universal scourge.

Another Souce:

 Then, as today, universities were known for corrupt morals; debauchery reigned among most of
his fellow students. Charles would immediately flee from even the slightest occasion of sin and
retire to his prayers and devotions, which often earned him ridicule and sneers. Caring little for
the derision of the world and preferring the friendship of God to that of men, he begged the
Lord to keep his soul from evil and harm. Rejecting two of his tutors – priests he considered too
secular, lax in saying their office, and improperly dressed as laymen instead of wearing clerical
attire – young Charles showed his prudence and good judgement.

Cardinal and Secretary of State

 Surrounded by wealth and honors, St. Charles – in his heart increasingly austere, humble and
disengaged from worldly things – not only did not find enjoyment in them but saw the dangers
they presented to the soul. Longing for monastic life of contemplation and penance, lived only
for God and far from the world, the young cardinal sought advice of the venerable archbishop of
Braga, who counselled him to stay in Rome in service of the Church. Accepting this as Gods will,
St. Charles would spend the rest of his life untiringly laboring for the good of the Church and the
advancement of Christs Kingdom.

Apostle of the Council of Trent

 St. Charles went to confession every morning – before celebrating Mass, and instructed his
priests to confess at least once a week. He had a great respect for the liturgy and insisted on
scrupulous reverence and decorum not only in celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass but
also in recitation of the Divine Office and in all religious rites and ceremonies. The habitual
neglect of the Sacraments, gross abuses in religious practices and irreverence for holy places and
things he encountered in Milan greatly grieved the archbishop. It was thanks to him that beauty,
dignity and splendor were restored to liturgy, and abuses were suppressed with all severity.