Saint Charles Borromeo was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat against the Protestant Reformation together with Ignatius of Loyola and Philip Neri.

Charles was born on October 2, 1538, at the castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore near Milan. His father was the Count of Arona and his mother a member of the House of Medici. He was the third of six children born to the couple.

At the age of 12, the young Count Charles Borromeo dedicated himself to a life of service to the Church. In 1554 his father passed away and although Charles was a teenager, responsibility for his household fell to him. Charles continued in his studies and earned a doctorate in canon and civil law.

His uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici became Pope Pius IV on December 25, 1559, and the Pope appointed Charles as a cardinal-deacon of Rome. A month later, Pope Pius IV made him a cardinal at the age of 23 and he had some very important duties to fulfil, viz. the administration of the Papal States, and supervision of the Knights of Malta, the Franciscans, and the Carmelites.

When his brother died in 1562, his family urged Charles to leave the service of the church to preserve the family name. However, he refused. He became more insistent upon becoming a good bishop and in compelling others to lead exemplary lives of clerical service.

In 1566, Pope Pius IV died and by that time, Charles had already developed a reputation as a young, idealistic reformer in Rome, and he continued that mission in Milan.

The Protestant Reformation was spreading throughout northern Europe and constantly threatened to move south. The greatest defence against Protestant doctrinal errors and claims against the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was reform and the restoration of integrity to the Catholic Church. Archbishop Charles Borromeo saw this clearly and he made this his mission.

His strategy was to provide education to many clergy he saw as ignorant. He founded schools and seminaries and colleges for clergy.

He ordered the simplification of church interiors, which was a major point of contention between some Catholics and Protestants. The complex and busy interiors were claimed to be a distraction from the worship of God. This danger was acknowledged during the Council of Trent which Archbishop Borromeo enforced.

His work of cleaning up the Church also made him enemies. There was even an attempt to his life by a member of a small, decrepit order known as the "Humiliati".

When the wealthy and powerful fled Milan in 1576 during a famine followed by plague, Archbishop Borromeo remained. He used his own fortune, and even took loans to feed the starving people. It is said that he may have fed 70,000 people per day.

In 1583, Archbishop Borromeo travelled to Switzerland to work against the heresy there. The following year, he fell ill with a fever and returned to Milan as his conditioned worsened. He died on November 3, at the age of 46.

Charles was beatified on May 12, 1602 and was subsequently canonized by Pope Paul V on November 1, 1610.

Charles Borromeo is the patron saint of bishops, catechists and seminarians.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Birrstan
2. Saint Clarus
3. Saint Modesta
4. Saint Pierius
5. Saint Vitalis