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The Lives of the Saints 70 Charles Borromeo November 4 Nepotism did not always have disastrous results. In 1560, Giovanni de Medici, having become pope under the name Pius IV, appointed his 25-year-old nephew, Charles Borromeo, cardinal of Milan. The young aristocrat took his nomination very seriously. Forthwith, he applied himself to the Council of Trent, which had begun 15 years earlier, and facilitated its conclusion in 1563. At the same time, he pursued his theological studies, was ordained a priest in 1564, and was immediately consecrated to the episcopacy as the bishop of Milan. Departing from the custom of prelates of his days, Saint Charles Borromeo left Rome to actually reside in his own diocese, which he traversed to and fro and administered with scrupulous care. He established three seminaries for the formation of the priests needed for the ministration of the people, reformed ecclesiastical discipline, and systematized the teaching of catechism to children. At the outbreak of the plague in 1576, he organized the efforts undertaken against the scourge and set an example by caring for the sick himself. Charles Borromeo’s influence was such that he was canonized in 1610, just 25 years after his death. While the shores of Lake Maggiore may have witnessed to his birth, he has no link with those paradise-like islets that dot its waters, the Borromeo Islands. It was a Borromeo prince, an indirect relative of the cardinal, who, in the following century, gave his name to the islands after having built an estate on them for his own leisure. Orazio Borgianni (ca. 1575–1616) Saint Charles Borromeo The State Hermitage Museum (Gosudarstvennyy Ermitazh), Saint Petersburg ...

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