St Charles Borromeo

4^th November is the official saint’s day for Charles Borromeo, a noted reformer of the Catholic Church in the late 16^th century.

Born in 1538 to a family of nobility in northern Italy, Charles Borromeo originally intended to follow a career in the law, but in 1559 his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici, became Pope Pius IV. As was common custom at the time, the new pope appointed his nephew to the post of Cardinal in the church. This was a means by which popes could promote the interests of their family, particularly as only cardinals could elect the next pope. The practice of favouring nephews in this way is the origin of the English word “nepotism”.

Charles appears to have taken his new duties seriously, living an austere life himself and encouraging others in the Roman Curia to do the same. He was active in helping to organise the final sessions of the Council of Trent (1562-3) which sought to respond to the Protestant Reformation by setting the Catholic Church’s house in order.

When Charles’s elder brother died in 1562, he was urged by his family to give up his church career and manage the family estates. However, he refused to do so and instead became ordained as a priest (one could be a cardinal without being a priest in those days!) and thereafter as a bishop. In 1564 he was appointed Archbishop of Milan, but was only allowed to take up his duties a year later.

The Archdiocese of Milan was huge, stretching from Geneva to Venice, with more than 3,000 clergy. Abuses were rife, caused largely by indifference and corruption on the part of its past leaders, and Charles Borromeo set about a wholesale cleansing and reform of what he found, based on the conclusions handed down by the Council of Trent.

Needless to say, he faced a lot of opposition from those whose cushy lifestyles were put under threat, and in 1569 he was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin, but survived. He determined to be even more vigorous in his efforts, especially when they were of direct benefit to the poorest members of his flock.

When famine struck Milan in 1575, followed by plague, the city’s governor and many nobles fled the city but Borromeo stayed put to organise relief efforts. He won the confidence of many leaders of religious houses and was able to co-ordinate a programme that fed up to 70,000 people on a daily basis, paid for in part out of his own funds. His devotion to the people eventually shamed the governor into returning to the city to do his job.

Charles Borromeo travelled widely across his diocese in his double mission to care for the poor and to reform religious institutions. Eventually this constant endeavour wore him down, and he died in 1584 at the age of only 46.

He was greatly venerated after his death and his progress towards sainthood was a relatively rapid one – he was beatified in 1602 and canonised in 1610. He is one of only two “cardinal nephews” to have become saints.

One of the most remarkable memorials to a saint is the massive statue of Charles Borromeo at Arona, north-west of Milan (the ancestral home of the Borromeo family) . It stands 23 metres high on a 12-metre high plinth (see photo above). It is second in size only to the Statue of Liberty among free-standing bronze statues (and was a model for the later statue).  The “Sancarlone” statue, designed by Giovanni Battista Crespi, was begun in 1614 but only finally erected in 1698. As with the Statue of Liberty, visitors can climb the interior and look out from the top, in Borromeo’s case through his eyes and ears.

© John Welford

St Eligius

1^st December is the saint’s day of Eligius, a 7^th-century French goldsmith who became a bishop.

Eligius was the son of a goldsmith. He followed in his father’s trade and was apprenticed to the mint at Limoges before going to Paris, where he believed that his talents would be better appreciated. He came to the notice of the king’s treasurer and was given the post of treasurer at Marseilles, where, in time, he acquired considerable wealth.

However, what set him apart from other wealthy businessmen was that he used his wealth to help the poor whenever he could. He also became deeply religious.

He was offered land at Solignac (near Limoges) which he used for the joint purpose of founding a monastery and setting up a factory to produce Limoges enamels.

In 642 Eligius was made Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, a vast area covering north-east France and Flanders, a post which he held until his death on 1^st December 660. He was very successful in making converts, and he also used a number of ex-slaves, whom he bought and then freed, as his assistants in his missionary work.

Not surprisingly, various legends grew up about this man who was greatly venerated during his lifetime and after his death. One of these is that he shod an unmanageable horse by cutting off its foreleg and then reattaching it after the hoof was shod. For this reason he is recognised as a patron saint of horses as well as goldsmiths and coin collectors.

© John Welford

St Martina

It is a Roman Catholic tradition that you can only give your child a name that has previously been that of a recognised saint. Sometimes one comes across the story of a saint about whom so little is known that one wonders if they are only on the list to give parents a wider choice when it comes to baby names!

One such saint might be Saint Martina, whose day for celebration falls on 30^th January. Almost nothing is known about her life, apart from the fact that she was buried in a Christian tomb in an ancient church in Rome along with her two brothers, Concordius and Epiphanius.

In 1634 Pope Urban VIII wanted to rebuild the church, which was when the tomb was discovered. It was decided to honour the supposed martyrs and the sculptor Bernini was commissioned to create a magnificent bronze shrine for Martina and her brothers. This is now the centrepiece of the church of Santi Luca e Martino in Rome.

Saint Martina, despite her obscurity, is one of the patron saints of the city of Rome.

© John Welford

St Daniel the Stylite

11^th December is the saint’s day for a 5^th century ascetic hermit who is generally known as Daniel the Stylite because of his decision to spend his later years living on top of a pillar (the Greek for pillar is “stulos”).

The most famous “pillar saint” is Simeon Stylites who adopted this lifestyle at a church near Aleppo, Syria, in order to get away from the crowds of people who kept badgering him for prayers and advice. For the necessities of life he depended on small boys who would climb up the pillar to bring him food (and presumably remove any waste matter – but history seems to be silent on this point!).

As a young man, Daniel was taken to see Simeon on his pillar and he was clearly impressed, especially as Simeon allowed him to climb the pillar to receive a blessing.

Daniel lived in a nearby monastery, where he was invited to become abbot when the previous incumbent died. However, Daniel refused, preferring to spend several years wandering about on various pilgrimages until settling down to live alone in an old temple near Constantinople.

When Simeon died in 459, Daniel decided to copy his example and live on a pillar, which he did for the next 33 years, shortly before he died at the age of 80.

Daniel refused to come down to ground level for any reason, including his ordination. Instead, the Patriarch of Constantinople had to say the first part of the service at the foot of the pillar and climb up it for the laying on of hands.

People came from far and wide to seek the saint’s wisdom, including two emperors. The only occasion on which Daniel is known to have come down from his pillar was to chastise one of the emperors face to face.

It was a strange lifestyle choice, although Daniel was not the only early Christian to take Simeon as a role model. Presumably the stylites thought that they were halfway to Heaven, but they must have realised that it was hardly a selfless way of so being, given that they did absolutely nothing, in a practical sense, to provide for their physical needs and depended on other people in order to keep them alive. No doubt the prayers and blessings those people received were regarded as adequate payment.

© John Welford

St Frumentius

Not many people have heard of St Frumentius, unless they are Christians in Ethiopia. However, 27^th October is the day on which St Frumentius should be remembered.

Frumentius and Aedesius were brothers and Christians who lived in the early 4^th Century in Tyre (modern Lebanon). As young boys they were taken on a visit to Ethiopia by their uncle, but when the ship docked at the Red Sea port of Adulis it was seized by local people who killed everyone on board apart from the two boys, who were taken to the court of the King of Aksum (northern Ethiopia) to serve as slaves.

They grew up in the royal court and eventually became trusted with high office, Frumentius becoming the king’s chief secretary. They were able to use their influence to open churches and begin the conversion of Aksum to Christianity.

When the king died the brothers were given their freedom. Aedesius returned to Tyre but Frumentius stayed behind to continue the work he had started. When he asked the Patriarch of Alexandria to send a bishop to Aksum, the Patriarch decided that Frumentius himself would be ideal for the job, so that is what he became. The new king became a Christian, as did the whole of his country.

Frumentius is also credited with making the first translation of the New Testament into the local language.

© John Welford

St Arcadius

Arcadius was a 4^th century Christian martyr whose story does seem to be more than a little far-fetched.

The setting of the story is north-west Africa during one of the Roman Empire’s periodic persecutions of Christians. Arcadius was a Christian who, when the soldiers came looking for Christians, left his home and escaped to the wilderness while the soldiers went around demanding that people should make sacrifices to the pagan gods or face the consequences of not so doing.

However, his absence was noted and one of his relatives was seized and threatened with torture unless he revealed where Arcadius was hiding. Arcadius got to hear about this and came back to the town to plead for his relative’s freedom, on the grounds that he was wholly innocent and should not suffer on his behalf.

Arcadius was then arrested and told that he would be released if he offered a sacrifice to the gods, which, as might be expected, he refused to do. He told the judge that he would willingly suffer any torture, and the judge declared that he would invent some new ones especially for him.

When the time came for Arcadius to be executed the judge made good his threat. First, his fingers were cut off, one by one, followed by his hands and arms. Next came his toes, feet and legs. Eventually all that was left of him was his trunk and head, but Arcadius continued praying.

As he looked at all his severed bodily parts, he declared that they were blessed because they had been sacrificed to God. He then addressed his tormenters to tell them that their gods were nothing compared to the one that he was about to meet, at which point he died.

How much one believes of the story of Arcadius, who apparently remained conscious and cogent despite suffering such massive injuries, is a matter for the individual, but some such stories are surely less believable than others.

The illustration is from “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”. 

© John Welford

St Wolfgang

Wolfgang was born in 924, in what is now southern Germany. At school he became friendly with a young nobleman named Henry whose elder brother was the Bishop of Würzburg in central Germany. The bishop had set up an excellent school at Würzburg, employing a renowned Italian scholar named Stefano of Novara. Henry persuaded Wolfgang to go with him to Würzburg, where he was sure that Wolfgang would be able to develop his considerable intellectual skills.

Both young men did well at Würzburg, although Wolfgang was the better scholar. In 956 Henry was made Archbishop of Trier (near Luxembourg) and he asked Wolfgang to accompany him there to teach in the cathedral school, which he did until Henry’s death in 964.

Wolfgang left Trier to become a monk at the abbey of Einsiedeln (Switzerland) where the abbot put him in charge of the school.

Wolfgang’s final post was as Bishop of Regensburg, an appointment made by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. He was bishop for about 20 years, during which time he carried out important reforms and, as might be expected, developed the educational facilities of the diocese. Towards the end of his life (he died in 994 at the age of 70) he withdrew from public life to become a hermit.

Wolfgang certainly led a saintly life, and he influenced many people to lead good lives themselves. Among his pupils was the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, who would also become a saint.

Naturally enough, legends grew up around him that included miraculous deeds, and which led to him being canonised in 1052. One of the more bizarre stories is that he called on the Devil to help him to build a church and thus join in the worship of God, which does sound more than a little unlikely.

© John Welford