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The saints

St. Charles Borromeo

A cardinal at twenty-two by family connections, who became the model bishop of the Catholic Reform.

Feast: 4 November · 1538 to 1584 · Reformation and missions · Milan, Italy

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Portrait of St. Charles Borromeo in profile, in a cardinal’s red biretta.

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, 1575. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Charles Borromeo

Milan, the plague of 1576

Charles was the nephew of Pope Pius IV, who made him a cardinal at twenty-two.1

It looked like classic nepotism, and Charles turned it into holiness.1

He helped finish the Council of Trent and then went to live in his diocese of Milan, which bishops rarely did.

Patron of catechists and seminarians1

01St. Charles Borromeo

The model bishop

He founded seminaries, reformed the clergy, and set up schools to teach the catechism.1

When plague struck Milan, he stayed, fed thousands and cared for the sick himself.1

Live it this week

Show up in the crisis

When plague came, Charles stayed. This week, when someone near you is in trouble, go in person instead of sending a text.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Charles Borromeo”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.