St. Charles Borromeo

During a seminary trip to Italy in January 2003, two other seminarians and I spent a few days in Milan. The cathedral there is one of the most famous and spectacular in the world. As we were visiting the cathedral, we made our way to the crypt and the central chapel in the crypt, directly underneath the main altar, where St. Charles Borromeo is buried. We literally stumbled upon this chapel and the saint's tomb - we had no idea that he was buried there, although it makes perfect sense since he had served as Archbishop of Milan. Aside from the opportunity to pray at the tomb of one of the Church's great saints, this discovery had special meaning for us because St. Charles Borromeo is the patron saint of seminarians. Today, November 4, is his feast day.

St. Charles Borromeo was one of the primary influences at the 16th Century Council of Trent and the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. He freely acknowledged that the Catholic Church needed reform, and he worked tirelessly to strengthen the clergy, provide education for adults and children, and reform the liturgy. He started the modern seminary system for the education of clergy and also founded the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) to train laity to teach children the faith. In many ways, he helped preserve and strengthen the Catholic Church in the wake of the Reformation.

Here is his advice for priests, taken from a sermon he delivered during the last synod he attended:

If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head. 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.