Image: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Saint Charles Borromeo, 1767–69. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
This site follows the traditional Roman calendar of 1962, as found in the 1962 Roman Missal used at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some feast days fall on different dates than in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, revised after the Second Vatican Council.
Bonus pastor animam suam dat pro ovibus suis.
John 10:11
The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.
His Life
Charles Borromeo was born in 1538 at Arona, on Lake Maggiore, to a noble family related to the Medici. His uncle became Pope Pius IV, who called the young Charles to Rome, made him a cardinal while still in his early twenties, and entrusted him with the Archdiocese of Milan.
Rather than enjoy the honors of his rank, Charles gave himself wholly to the work of the Church. He played a leading part in bringing the Council of Trent to its close and in preparing the Roman Catechism. Once in Milan, he set about putting the Council’s decrees into practice: he founded seminaries for the training of priests, held synods, visited even the poorest mountain parishes, and restored discipline among clergy and religious, even at the risk of his own life.
When plague struck Milan in 1576, many in authority fled, but Charles remained. He nursed the sick, sold his own goods to feed the poor, and led processions of penance through the streets. Worn out by labor and austerity, he died in 1584 at the age of forty-six, and was canonized in 1610.
Today the Church also commemorates Sts. Vitalis and Agricola, martyrs of Bologna.
A Lesson for Today
St. Charles shows that true reform begins with one’s own life, and that a shepherd’s place is with his flock, above all in times of danger.
Sancte Carole, ora pro nobis.
St. Charles, pray for us.