St Charles Borromeo

Charles was born into a very rich and famous family; he had 5 brothers and sisters. Charles’ uncle (his mother’s brother) was Pope Pius IV. His family sent him to study at the Benedictine abbey in their town when he was 12 years old, and he was put in charge of taking care of the money that the brothers at the Abbey made. Even though he was so young, he made sure that the money was spent on the things of God. When he was older, he went to University and he became a lawyer. His uncle Pope Pius IV asked him to come to Rome to work for the Church and made him a Cardinal. During this time he took care of the Franciscans, Carmelites, and Knights of Malta, he organized important meetings in the Church called the Council of Trent where lots of Church teachings were decided on, he helped write one of the Catechism books of the Catholic Church, and he started a college! His family wanted him to stop working for the Church and to come home to get married and have kids, but Charles had grown in his love for the Church and God and decided that he wanted to become a priest. He was later made Archbishop of Milan. Milan was a very big city, with over 3,000 priests, but they weren’t following the teachings of the Church. As Archbishop, Charles worked very hard to bring the Christians and the priests in the Church back to a good and holy relationship with God. He started good schools for people to study to become priests and he started Sunday school classes so that boys and girls could learn the truths about the Church. Even though it was hard to make these changes, Archbishop Borromeo didn’t let anyone stop him.