Saint Charles Borromeo Minibook

Title: Saint Charles Borromeo
Authors: Bob and Penny Lord
Publisher: Journeys of Faith
Format: Printed minibook
24 Pages

Saint Charles Borromeo

Hero of the Counter Reformation

God is so good. He made a promise which He has always kept. He has been a faithful God to a very unfaithful people. We are our own worst enemies, but God always bails us out. We’re talking in this instance about the great heretical movement spawned by Martin Luther in the early Sixteenth Century, a pure flame from hell which grew and grew until it exploded into epidemic proportions.

Luther was a victim of his own ego. He was used and abused as a pawn by the powers that ruled Germany during that period. By the time Martin Luther was dying, he had lost all power; the reformation had gotten completely out of his control. Luther had to prepare himself to meet God the Father and explain how and why he left the people of God at the mercy of maniacs and wholesale murderers such as John Calvin in Switzerland, Henry VIII, and in years to come, Oliver Cromwell in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Luther made a statement before he died, “I wanted to get rid of one pope; I created a hundred popes.” And it continued to get worse, with all blame being heaped on the shoulders of this dissident Augustinian priest.

Saint Charles Borromeo was made legate of Bologna, Romagna and the Marches of Ancona.

 Then he was named Protector of Portugal, the Low Countries, the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, as well as the orders of the Franciscans, the Carmelites, the Knights of Malta and many others.

Saint Charles Borromeo was becoming a powerful man in the Church and he was still not a priest.

He did hold minor orders, however at age twenty three. His slow methodical approach did annoy some people in the Vatican; but there was never cause for concern.

The assignments were always executed to the exact degree of excellence of which he was expected to perform, and yet he was never in a hurry to get them done.

Everything was customary and systematic.

Saint Charles Borromeo was never harried. With the death of members of the family, he became in charge of handling family affairs, which he did again without getting overwhelmed, and at the same time accomplishing his goals more than satisfactorily.