Saint Charles Borromeo
Bishop
- Feast Day
- November 4
- Life
- 1538–1584
- Canonized
- 1610
- Born
- Arona, Duchy of Milan
Charles Borromeo was born on October 2, 1538, at the family castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, the second son of Count Giberto Borromeo and Margherita de' Medici. After studies in canon and civil law at the University of Pavia, where he received his doctorate in 1559, his maternal uncle was elected Pope Pius IV in December of that year. The new pope created Charles a cardinal in 1560 at age twenty-two and entrusted him with the administration of the Archdiocese of Milan and the office of Cardinal Secretary of State.
Charles played the decisive administrative role in convoking and concluding the final period of the Council of Trent (1562-1563). After the Council closed he devoted himself to implementing its decrees: he was ordained a priest in 1563 and consecrated bishop, took up residence in Milan in 1565 (a radical step for a great see whose bishops had long been absentees), conducted multiple diocesan synods and provincial councils, founded seminaries (a Tridentine innovation he made his own), reformed religious orders, and authored a comprehensive pastoral plan for parish life and catechesis. During the plague of 1576-1578 in Milan he remained in the city, organized care for the sick, processed barefoot in penance, and went into personal debt to feed the starving. He died on November 3, 1584, exhausted at age forty-six. Pope Paul V canonized him on November 1, 1610.
Charles Borromeo is the model of the post-Tridentine reforming bishop: residing in his see, preaching, visiting parishes, training clergy, and giving his health for his flock. Saint John XXIII, who took his coronation name in part from Charles (whose biography John had written), held him up as a pattern for the bishops of Vatican II.
Patronages
bishops · catechists · seminarians · the Archdiocese of Milan
From Saint Charles Borromeo
"Souls are won on one's knees."
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Charles Borromeo
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Charles Borromeo's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St Charles Borromeo, Attercliffe — Attercliffe, ENG
- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — St. Charles, PE
- St. Charles Borromeo Parish — BENGUET
- Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Gold Beach, OR
- Mary Immaculate & St Charles Borromeo (Franciscan) - Waverley — Waverley, NSW
- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Charleston, IL
- St. Charles Borromeo Parish — Read, ON
- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Moosomin First Nation, SK
- St. Charles Borromeo — Drexel Hill, PA
- St Charles Borromeo — Hull, ENG
- St. Charles Borromeo — Livermore, CA
- Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Destrehan, LA
- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Burlington, WI
- St. Charles Borromeo — Jacksonville, AL
- Saint Charles Borromeo Church — Cheboygan, MI
- Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church — Orlando, FL
- Church of St. Charles Borromeo — Minneapolis, MN
- St. Charles Borromeo — Ahoskie, NC
- St. Charles Borromeo — Nederland, TX
- Saint Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church — Hampshire, IL
Sources