By RAY CAVANAUGH
St. Charles Borromeo came of age when the Church was in a Reformation-induced crisis. But the way he responded to this crisis would see him become the patron saint of seminarians and bishops. His feast day is November 4.
He was born on October 2, 1538, in the town of Arona, located on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. The third of six children, he grew up in his family’s private castle. His father was Count Gilberto Borromeo and his mother was Countess Margherita de Medici, whose younger brother became Pope Pius IV in 1559.
It would be difficult to find a family with better connections than what the Borromeo family had. A sure sign of his family’s influence was that Charles was appointed as head of a monastery at age twelve.
Had he wanted to lead a luxuriously self-indulgent life, he could have done so with great ease. But he would prove to have other priorities.
In 1554, Borromeo headed to the University of Pavia to study civil and canon law — subjects in which he would ultimately take doctorate degrees.
As a young man, Borromeo was a good Catholic, but also a “haughty noble, proud of his ancient name” and one to delight in his material advantages, as related by Louise M. Stacpoole-Kenny’s Saint Charles Borromeo: A Sketch of the Reforming Cardinal.
When his brother, Count Federigo, died of a fever in 1562, Charles found himself the sole remaining heir. A vast fortune was his. However, he viewed his brother’s untimely death as a “warning to him to give up all worldly things,” according to The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908 edition).
Despite the objections of his extended family, he resolved to become a priest. Just three months after his Ordination on September 4, 1563, the ever-connected Fr. Borromeo was consecrated archbishop of Milan. It was a colossal diocese, consisting of about 2,000 churches, 3,000 priests, and 170 religious communities.
And there were additional challenges: Stacpoole-Kenny writes: “Never, perhaps, in the history of the Church were priests and people alike fallen into such a deplorable state of lassitude and decadence as during the sixteenth century. Heresy, abuses, laxity, all tended to separate her children from Holy Church. . . . Never was there such pressing need of an orthodox reformer.”
Archbishop Borromeo was the man for the task. Among other talents, he was gifted at discerning the extent of other people’s abilities and virtues. He therefore managed to succeed in bringing to his diocese priests of high erudition and piety.
Instilling discipline and reverence, Borromeo held weekly meetings to discuss necessary changes and the requirements of each parish. Also, he established seminaries, both ones for aspiring priests and ones for priests who were already ordained but in need of some fine-tuning. Furthermore, he helped to establish the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (more widely known as CCD), and he all but eradicated the scourge of indulgence-hawking that had brought much discredit to the Church and had so ignited the wrath of Martin Luther.
Borromeo’s ardor and success made him especially unpopular with corrupt clergy. In fact, members of one particular order, the Humiliati (Brothers of Humility), decided that he had to go.
An attempt was made on Borromeo’s life on October 26, 1569. While kneeling in prayer, he was shot in the back but did not suffer any lasting injury (which some considered a miracle). A sure sign of his forgiving spirit, he asked for leniency for the conspirators. The civil authorities, however, ignored his request and executed the conspirators in public.
Though evidently there were limits to Borromeo’s influence, he was widely revered as a wise man. Popes as well as various monarchs sought his advice. He also proved himself adept in a public health crisis, as shown by his courageous and effective acts during a time of plague. Additionally, he garnered admiration for his ability to transform career criminals into decent citizens.
And his generosity was the stuff of legend: With the money obtained from selling the opulent furniture, jewels, and artwork in his family’s palaces, he provided many indigent young women with the dowries they needed to get married. For himself, he typically kept only what was enough to purchase books and clothes.
It is true that Borromeo was often somewhat uptight in his demeanor and rigid in his convictions. He was also an incorrigible workaholic. When his friends tried to persuade him to sleep more than his usual three to four hours per night, he insisted that a “soldier of the cross” must be vigilant, adding how “pastors of Christ are entrusted the care of souls, and have to wage constant war.”
Following a brief illness, he died in Milan on November 3, 1584, at age 46. As his biographer later wrote, Borromeo “had overtaxed his strength for years.” Beatified by Clement VIII in 1602, he was canonized by Paul V in 1610.
These days, churches bearing Borromeo’s name extend from Staten Island to California in the U.S. And, internationally, churches bearing his name are found in such places as Antwerp, Rome, Vienna, and Warsaw. Unsurprisingly, the patron of seminarians also has seminaries featuring his name. These institutions extend from Philadelphia to the Philippines to Rwanda.
Considering his lasting impact and widespread legacy, it seems this “soldier of the cross” can claim a permanent victory.
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