As Bishop of Milan in the 1500s, and a pillar of the Church of his time, St. Charles Borromeo was a pastor whose love for his flock fueled his untiring efforts to care for them. Charles Borromeo is best-known for establishing the tradition of Sunday School to teach young children the faith, a practice that continues to this day.

Charles was born to an aristocratic Italian family in 1538, in the thick of the European Protestant Reformation. As a child, Charles had a speech impediment and seemed to lack intelligence. In school, despite his disadvantages, Charles persisted diligently in his studies and made steady progress.

Soon after advancing to study for a doctorate, Charles learned that his uncle, Cardinal de Medici, had been elected pope. His uncle, now Pope Pius IV, appointed Charles to several prestigious appointments in the Roman Curia, despite Charles’ relative youth. At the time of these appointments, Charles was only twenty-three years old and not yet ordained a priest. The more honor Charles received, however, the more detached he became from the trappings of success. As he had during his studies, Charles remained steadily methodical in his work serving the Church in the Curia.

Charles’ uncle, Pope Pius IV, wanted to reconvene the Council of Trent, which had been suspended for close to a decade. Charles assisted his uncle by diligently calling bishops together and coordinating their work. Charles was a behind-the-scenes force who enabled an important Church council to conclude its work.

When Charles inherited his family’s estate, most people expected him to leave the clerical state and marry. Instead, he renounced his part of the family fortune and was ordained a priest. Two months later, he was consecrated as a bishop.

Charles continued to work in Vatican administration—such as overseeing the creation of a new catechism and liturgical texts—but he longed to be with the faithful of his diocese, Milan, which had lacked a resident bishop for some 80 years. Finally, in 1566, Charles was able to move to Milan and began to enact a robust program for renewal, restoring order and stability to the post-Reformation Church in Milan.

Charles had a large income from a number of sources, but he gave most of it to charity, especially families living in poverty, and he always lived simply. When he was not in his official robes, he owned only one worn-out cassock for his personal use.

Charles’ prayerful and joyful spirit was well-respected in Milan and attracted many people to him. Charles made it his first priority to seek holiness and perfection himself, and that effort shone forth to others and inspired them.

People listened to him, even though his preaching was hindered by his speech impediment because he spoke the truth. “I have often wondered how it was that, without any natural eloquence or anything attractive in his manner, he was able to work such changes in the hearts of his hearers,” wrote one of his friends. “He spoke but little, gravely, and in a voice barely audible, but his words always had an effect.”

He was not content to let children only receive instruction in the faith from their pastors at Mass, so he established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD), which was the first “Sunday School” practice to catechize children in the faith.

Charles’ reforms were not always well-received. Monks from a wealthy monastery disliked his orders to return to simplicity and plotted to assassinate him. One monk crept up behind Charles while he was praying and fired a gun into his back. The bullet did not pierce his clothes, however, and Charles felt that he had been saved by a miracle; he immediately took a retreat to re-dedicate his life to God.

When Milan was struck by a famine, Charles organized relief supplies to sustain the whole city and used his own means to feed 3,000 people every day for three months.

Later, when the Bubonic plague struck the region, Charles dedicated all of his time to caring for the sick, publicly denouncing the civil officials who fled the city and shaming them into returning. Business ground to a stop when no one wanted any contact with the city, and the 70,000 people within began to starve. Charles used all of his resources to feed people, and incurred large debts during the 18-month crisis. He even used banners and tapestries from his home and from the cathedral to clothe the needy.

In a sermon at a synod, Charles counseled the bishops: “Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself.” Yet, Charles was indefatigable in his care for the people entrusted to him—he was constantly making visits to parishes, and would engage anyone who wanted to clarify their understanding of the faith, from princes to peasants. Worn out by his pastoral care, Charles died on November 3, 1584; he was only forty-six years old.

The chapel in Alumni Hall is named after St. Charles Borromeo and features the stained glass window above. The painting above of Charles caring for the plague-stricken citizens of Milan is part of the collection of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art on campus. Some of Charles’ relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and he is the patron saint of catechists, bishops, and those learning the faith.

St. Charles Borromeo, heroic teacher and pastor of souls—pray for us!

Image credit:
Giacinto Brandi (Italian, 1621-1691), St. Carlo Borromeo and the Plague-Stricken, n.d., oil on canvas. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art: Bequest of Mr. Joseph McCrindle, 2009.031.001.