From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   November 4th - Saint Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan   
   (1538-1584)   
      
   Saint Charles Borromeo was born in 1538 in the castle of Arona on the borders   
   of   
   Lake Major, fourteen miles from Milan. He was the son of Count Gilbert   
   Borromeo,   
   a descendant of one of the most ancient families of Lombardy, very famous for   
   its great men. The Count was known for his almsgiving and his rigorous fasts;   
   it   
   was his custom never to eat a meal without first giving alms. The Countess,   
   Charles' mother, was also exceptionally virtuous. Their family was composed of   
   two sons and four daughters, all of whom manifested in their lives the splendor   
   of their Christian heritage. Their maternal uncle, John Angelus of Medici,   
   became Pope Pius IV. Charles was clearly destined for the ecclesiastical   
   vocation; all his preferences in study made it clear.   
      
   When he was twelve years old, a paternal uncle willed to him an abbey in   
   commendam; and the child constantly reminded his father that this revenue was   
   the patrimony of the poor. His father wept for joy, seeing his son's solicitude   
   for the just application of his trust.   
      
   Count Gilbert died when Charles was twenty years old, and he was obliged to   
   come   
   home from Pavia where he had been studying law; he returned there, however, to   
   complete his doctorate at the university after settling his affairs. One year   
   later, when his maternal uncle became Pope Pius IV, he created Charles   
   cardinal,   
   and after another year nominated him Archbishop of Milan. The Pontiff detained   
   him in Rome, however, seeing his extensive capacities and adding to these   
   offices other administrative duties which ordinarily require the prudence of   
   mature years. No one was disappointed in his services, despite the fact he was   
   maintaining delicate papal relations with other nations, as protector of   
   Portugal and the Low Countries, and was at the head of the Knights of Malta,   
   the   
   Orders of Carmel and Saint Francis, among other duties.   
      
   When the Council of Trent (1545-1563) was nearing its conclusion, Saint   
   Charles,   
   who had participated with authority in many of its twenty-five sessions,   
   desired   
   to leave Rome to attend to his diocese of Milan, a duty which his vicar general   
   had carried out until that time. The urgency of the situation there persuaded   
   the Pope to consent regretfully to his departure. Saint Charles intended to put   
   into execution the reforming decrees of the Council, create seminaries and   
   schools and in general restore discipline in the Church of Milan.   
      
   As Archbishop of Milan he enforced the observance of the decrees, and   
   thoroughly   
   restored the discipline of his see. Criticism hounded him there, but left him   
   unmoved; he kept with him in his episcopal household of about one hundred   
   persons, a certain priest who delighted in finding fault with whatever he did;   
   he treated him with great consideration, and in his will left him a pension for   
   life. He was very severe with himself, eating only once a day, and limiting   
   himself often to bread and water. When someone suggested he should have a   
   garden   
   at Milan to get some fresh air, he replied that the Holy Scriptures should be   
   the garden of a bishop.   
      
   The sermons of Saint Charles produced great fruits among all ranks of the   
   people. When young he had manifested a speech defect with a tendency to speak   
   too fast, but he overcame these handicaps with many efforts. A man who admired   
   him said that he always forgot the orator himself when he preached, so   
   transported was he by the great truths he heard explained, and the longest   
   sermons of Saint Charles seemed short to him. Everywhere the holy Archbishop   
   established schools of Christian doctrine, numbering in all seven hundred and   
   forty, in which over three thousand catechists were employed, presiding over   
   forty thousand students.   
      
   Once Saint Charles heard a cardinal who was a bishop of a small diocese say   
   that   
   his diocese was too small to require his constant residence there, as canon law   
   required; Saint Charles said to him with force that the price of one soul is   
   such as to merit the residence and entire time of the greatest of men. He   
   himself visited the most remote corners of his diocese, traveling in   
   mountainous   
   regions amid the greatest dangers, which he regarded as nothing unusual, and   
   unworthy of mention.   
      
   Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock he was a most tender father.   
   He would sit by the roadside to teach a poor man the Pater and Ave. During the   
   great plague which broke out in Milan, which he had foretold as a chastisement   
   for the disorders of the Carnival, he refused to leave, asking those who   
   remonstrated with him if it were not more perfect to remain with one's flock   
   than to abandon them in need, and adding that a bishop is obliged to choose   
   what   
   is most perfect. He was ever at the side of the sick and dying. He stripped his   
   palace of literally everything to aid those who had lost their support in their   
   fathers and spouses, even giving away his straw mattress. As he lived, so he   
   died, having governed his church for twenty-four years and eight months. To the   
   heroic sanctity of this faithful copy of the Good Shepherd, many miracles came   
   to testify, through his relics and his intercession. In 1610 he was canonized   
   by   
   Pope Paul V.   
      
   Sources: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Principal Saints, by Rev. Alban   
   Butler (Metropolitan Press: Baltimore, 1845), Vol. IV, October-December; Little   
   Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Lives of the   
   Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York,   
   1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   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.   
   --Saint Charles Borromeo   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Give thanks to the Father, who has made us worthy to share the lot of the   
   Saints   
   in the light. Col. 1:12   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing,   
    I adore Thee, I love Thee and with a lively sorrow for my   
   sins, I offer Thee this poor heart of mine.  Make me humble,   
   patient, pure and wholly obedient to Thy will.  Grant, good   
   Jesus, that I may live in Thee and for Thee.  Protect me in the   
   midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health   
   of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Thy blessing on all   
   that I do, and the grace of a holy death.  Within Thy Heart I   
   place my every care.  In every need let me come to Thee with   
   humble trust saying, Heart of Jesus help me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)