Council of trent catechism pdf

The other cardinals followed his advice and Ghislieri was raised to the throne of St. Peter, taking the name of Pius V. Charles put all personal interests and considerations aside, for relations between his uncle Pius IV and cardinal Ghislieri had been far from amicable, and did what he knew to be best for the glory of God, the Church and salvation of souls. Pius V also came to greatly esteem and love St.

And so two of our most glorious saints were brought together to fight and root out heresy, corruption and immorality wherever they found them.

Charles was also involved in the implementation of liturgical norms, and even helped to reform liturgical music, restoring the sense of sacredness. During the Renaissance period church music became corrupted by the use of secular tunes and songs which appealed to the taste of the age, and even the liturgical ones became too florid and extravagant, discouraging piety and attracting many to church only for the musical performance.

Charles supported sacred polyphony and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who to this day is considered the greatest composer of sacred music. The task of applying and enforcing the decrees of the Council of Trent, first in Rome, then Milan, became the life-work of St.

Charles Borromeo. As soon as the Council ended he started putting to action the vast program of reforms, beginning with the restoration of discipline and morality of clergy, religious and laymen, as well as promotion of solid religious education. Mere months after he put into practice the new rules transformation of Rome became palpable. A daunting task awaited him. Milan had not had a resident bishop for eight decades; conditions were disastrous.

Multitudes — rich and poor alike — were plunged in sin and iniquity of every kind, children were growing up without knowledge and fear of God, vast numbers of adults had not been to confession for years and decades if ever! The situation was so dire that reform may well have seemed impossible.

Charles, never losing heart, put his whole confidence in Divine assistance and gave himself entirely to the duty of bringing souls back to God. He knew that where the priesthood was holy the laity would follow; where the priesthood was relaxed the laity would fall. Therefore the work had to begin with a spiritual reform of clergy — rooting out laxity, vice and abuses.

He started with the bishops, who were to be an example to their priests and laymen. To rid the Church of any corruption Charles replaced unworthy men with ones of exemplary life, great personal integrity and piety.

Prelates and priests were expected to be resident in their respective dioceses and parishes, be free of worldly attachments and ambitions, recite all the hours of the Divine Office in choir, dismiss any females including female relatives from their households, etc. All priests were ordered to wear the cassock. Those who possessed several benefices had to resign all but one.

The saint also reformed monastic life, bringing back obedience to the old rules of the Orders and imposing the regulations of the Council of Trent including insistence on strict enclosure. This cost him much time, prayer and tears, for many monasteries, especially the female branches, initially refused to obey the rules and reforms he prescribed.

For the benefit of his flock cardinal Borromeo took a very firm — and public — stand on the popular vices and evil customs of the day. Disorder and immorality were no longer tolerated, work on Sunday was strictly forbidden, entertainments on Sundays and holy days censured, observance of Lent made mandatory. Those known to be openly leading a life of sin were instructed, reprimanded and, if they refused to made amends, punished. In order that the Holy Name of God be revered by all the saint enacted harsh penalties against blasphemers and those who harbored them or neglected to correct blasphemy.

Numerous were his regulations for restoration of Christian morals, for he — as a good shepherd — loved his sheep even to the point of laying down his life if that were the price for saving their souls. This courageous action against disorder and sin earned St.

Charles much hostility, as well as the reputation of a kill-joy. Yet, while certainly rigorous and uncompromising, the person he was most severe with was himself. Always striving to set a personal example of discipline, virtue and moral standards, he first enforced upon himself all that he preached to others. He reduced staff keeping only priests of exemplary life , sold all superfluous luxuries to help feed poor families, forbade his retainers to accept any gifts, and imposed such discipline on all members that his court surpassed, in devotion and modesty, even the strictest religious houses.

Saint Charles Borromeo by Giambattista Tiepolo. Charles had so great a respect for the ecclesiastical habit, which he had worn since childhood, that he avoided even the smallest act of levity that was unbefitting his vocation. He led an ascetic life, arming himself for the tasks ahead with fervent prayer and devotions, severe fasts, mortifications and austerities. But above all things, and throughout his entire life, he was most careful to preserve his heart and soul from every stain of impurity which he abhorred as contrary to the angelic virtue required in ecclesiastical persons.

His love of purity was such that he never let anyone see his arm, foot, or any other part of his body uncovered; nor did he speak to any woman, not even to pious relations, or any nun, without at least two people being present, and even then as briefly as possible.

Keeping himself far from every stain, he could not bear to hear anyone utter a single impure word. Charles went to confession every morning — before celebrating Mass, and instructed his priests to confess at least once a week. He had a great respect for the liturgy and insisted on scrupulous reverence and decorum not only in celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass but also in recitation of the Divine Office and in all religious rites and ceremonies.

The habitual neglect of the Sacraments, gross abuses in religious practices and irreverence for holy places and things he encountered in Milan greatly grieved the archbishop. It was thanks to him that beauty, dignity and splendor were restored to liturgy, and abuses were suppressed with all severity. The previously deserted cathedral had people flocking to the services of the Church; their dedication to the worship of God rose as soon as they saw it worthily celebrated.

To further draw their hearts to the love of God the saintly archbishop revived and encouraged devotions including the ancient Forty Hours devotion , Eucharistic processions, adoration and pilgrimages especially to the Holy Shroud of Turin and to Marian shrines. Proper education and training of priests and solid instruction in Catechism and Catholic doctrine for laity was a priority for St. He established many seminaries and colleges for the education of clergy, and founded the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine with schools teaching the Catechism to children these were the first Sunday Schools; by time of his death there were such schools in the archdiocese, with over 40, pupils.

Also founded by the saint were the Oblates of St. Ambrose, a secular fraternity of priests who supported him in religious works wherever they were needed. Nor did he neglect to establish throughout his archdiocese schools for instruction of the poor, orphanages and hospitals.

As archbishop he held six provincial councils and eleven diocesan synods, and traveled untiringly on pastoral visitations throughout his vast archdiocese, three times visiting every single parish. At the request of the popes he also made apostolic visitations to many other provinces. Even the most remote and inaccessible Alpine regions, completely abandoned by clergy, St. Charles deemed important enough to merit his time and effort. He would endure any privation and hardship traveling on horseback and by foot, in heat and snow, lacking food and shelter to win a soul for Christ.

Everywhere he went he found profound ignorance, rampant immorality, profanation, lack of reverence for the Sacraments and for priests, and almost no knowledge of God and His law. And so he wept and prayed, preached and catechized, admonished and instructed, drove out heresy, enacted reforms, replaced unworthy priests by pious and zealous ones, and restored dignity to divine service.

Countless souls destined for damnation were converted after hearing a single sermon, a few words of instruction, or a heartfelt plea from St. In the Swiss valleys many were infected with the heresies of Zwingli, Calvin and Luther and the false doctrines of liberty of conscience, freedom to sin, life according to flesh and everything contrary to the law of God. The saint, deeply grieved at seeing so many on the road to perdition, succeeded in delivering countless souls from heresy and apostasy to God.

His exhortations and sermons, and more so his personal holiness, worked miracles at bringing those deceived by false prophets back into the Church. The people, seeing his self-denial and austerities combined with such zeal for their salvation, highly esteemed the sanctity of the cardinal — this being quite the contrary of what heretical preachers had told them about prelates. Even in regions where all had lost the faith most people welcomed St.

Charles with respect and joy, and were often well disposed for conversion at his bidding, for anywhere he went his reputation preceded him. It was thanks to these extraordinary efforts and labors that the faith was preserved and heresy and debauchery defeated in the archdiocese of Milan and other territories under the influence of St. The incorrupt heart of St. His necessary toughness in implementation of the Council of Trent and restoration of order and morals made the saint many enemies.

For much of his life he suffered calumnies, false accusations and evil rumors propagated not just by heretics and incorrigible sinners but also clerics and religious who disliked his enforcement of strict ecclesiastical discipline. Charles paid no attention and simply fought on, working for God and the Church, with no care for himself, no thought for the judgement of men, nor fear of his powerful adversaries. He never shrank from his duty to save souls and protect his flock from harm.

When it brought him into conflicts with the secular powers he stood his ground and put all his trust in the Lord. His actions against highly placed laity, whose disorderly lives were causing public scandal, resulted in several efforts for his removal from office. Charles became archbishop. When certain nobles living in public adultery proved impervious to his exhortations and attempts to win them to a better life, the saint, seeing the infinite harm caused by their example to the rest of his flock, ordered them to be imprisoned.

If public vice was allowed to pass unpunished, what hope was there for regeneration of the city and conversion of the people to honest, God-fearing lives? The senate, seeing this as undue interference in secular matters, had the sheriff of the episcopal court seized, publicly beaten and banished from the city.

After prayer and careful deliberation St. Charles declared several of the civil officials excommunicated. Both parties made formal complaints to Philip II; the king referred the matter to the Pope who upheld the archbishop.

When he tried to conduct a canonical visitation the canons insulted and attacked him; one of their armed supporters fired a shot, damaging the cross the saint was carrying. Throughout all this St.

Charles stood brave and resigned, eyes fixed upon the crucifix, lips moving in silent prayer. Once again he had to resort to excommunication. The governor and senate sided with the canons and complained to both king and Pope, shamelessly accusing the holy prelate of treason, threatening to imprison and banish him. Very shortly thereafter two of the chief actors in that outrage, including one who had shot at the cross, died sudden and miserable deaths.

Only a few months later St. Charles survived, quite miraculously, the most serious attempt on his life. Priors of the Humiliati — a decayed penitential order unwilling to submit to reform — plotted to have archbishop Borromeo murdered.

A religious of the order, paid to carry out the hit, fired a shot at the saint — from a distance of four or five meters — as he was kneeling at the altar of his chapel. Charles, believing himself mortally wounded, calmly finished his prayers, signaling his staff to do likewise, and offered his life to God, thanking Him for allowing him to die for His Church.

When the prayers were concluded the archbishop was found to be unharmed. The bullet had struck him on the spine, but instead of piercing him through and through it inexplicably fell down to his feet, leaving nothing but a slight swelling on the skin and the marks on his — pierced and scorched — vestments. The Lord wanted St. Charles to continue His labors on earth for 15 more years before allowing him to take his just reward in heaven. The archbishop withdrew, for a few days, to a Carthusian monastery, and there made a new offer of his life to God and the Church.

Meanwhile the news of his miraculous preservation turned the open hostility of his enemies into sympathy and admiration. Even the rebellious canons of La Scala humbled themselves and submitted, upon which the archbishop lifted their excommunication and ensured the culprits would be treated with leniency.

Similarly, when his would-be assassin was captured, the saint begged the Pope to pardon him, but St. Pius V could not allow such injustice; the man was executed and the order of the Humiliati abolished.

The new governor, whom the archbishop had considered a friend, soon began attacking him and infringing upon the rights of the Church. Following the excommunication the governor became an open enemy, interfering with the saint wherever he could.

He hindered the meetings of Confraternities, sent armed men to take possession of the Borromeo family castle of Arona, and posted several companies of infantry and cavalry outside the archiepiscopal palace as though the archbishop was a state prisoner which did not deter St.

Charles who continued to go in and out as his duties required, without regard to the threat. At last king Philip II transferred the governor to Flanders where he soon became ill and, after two years of terrible suffering, died. Charles, the governor was not deterred and continued acting — and encouraging the people to act — against his ordinances. To ensure proper observance of Lent, St. Charles forbade any balls, festivities and tournaments to take place during the forty days.

Rebelling against the order, his enemies organized a public tournament the first Sunday of Lent, in front of the cathedral. In response the archbishop excommunicated all those who had participated in that grotesque act of impiety. Shortly thereafter the wretched governor became gravely ill and died. Charles was not only famous for his strictness but also his great humility and charity. He would not let any praise or flattery be directed at himself, and never spoke of his own actions unless to ask for advice or to condemn his deficiencies.

He was grateful to those who would point out any faults they might see in him, and often implored people that they may do him this favor. No matter how he was treated, he always considered it better than he deserved. Whenever he encountered any obstacles in doing all the good he wished, instead of blaming the parties responsible for the troubles, he put it down to his own sins and shortcomings.

Always displeased when hearing of virtues being ascribed to him, he tried to conceal them as much as possible to dispel the idea that he was a saint. During the plague and famine of he spent all of his money, and even incurred great debts, to daily feed 60, people. When the plague broke out many people — including the governor and nobles — fled Milan.

The saint not only stayed but dedicated himself entirely to the poor wretches — distributing food, clothes and alms, visiting the sick in their homes, and working at the hospital where the plague-stricken were isolated and left to die. Their archbishop was the only one who would not forsake them, administering the last Sacraments and providing much needed spiritual consolation in their final hours.

The clergy of Milan refused to help him in such work, so he sent for comparatively fearless priests and laymen from the Swiss valleys. Finally, shamed by St. Sin being the cause of scourges, the saint, at the foot of the altar, made a voluntary sacrifice of himself, offering his life — if God would accept it — in atonement for the iniquities of his people.

He redoubled on his already severe bodily discipline, fasts and mortifications, and urged people to do penance. In penitential processions he walked with a rope around his neck, his feet bare and bleeding, a large crucifix along with a relic of the Holy Nail of the Passion of Our Lord in his hand, endeavoring to turn away the just anger of God.

Charles Borromeo and Two Angels by A. Altars were erected in the streets throughout the city so that all people, quarantined in their homes, could assist at daily Mass from their windows. Priests went from house to house, hearing confessions on the doorstep the penitents kneeling inside behind the door , and on Sundays parish priests went round with the Blessed Sacrament, giving Holy Communion to people on their doorsteps. Prayers, psalms and hymns were sung seven times a day after the manner of the canonical hours , and all the inhabitants attended at their windows, making the responses on their knees.

Charles thus united the whole city to offer praise to God in one voice. It is well to remember that, while practicing personal poverty, humility, and contempt for earthly things, the saint at the same time maintained the splendor of his ecclesiastical dignity. He understood the obligation of giving due honor to his office of archbishop and cardinal — for the glory of God and edification of his people.

When he was speaking in his own person, he placed himself below all, but when he spoke as cardinal he justly deemed himself above every other dignity inferior to his own. In the same manner, he required due honor and respect to be paid to the office of bishop, which he deemed as much above any worldly dignity as the spiritual is above the temporal.

Charles, as his rank required, dressed with great decorum and solemnity. Yet underneath the external grandeur of a cardinal he always wore a rough hair shirt and so, unknown to others, practiced penance for his sins and those of his people. Many times when visiting churches in pilgrimage he wore shoes without any soles in order to have only the pain but not the praise of men.

Once St. Charles, sitting in his carriage, was approached and greeted by a friar. The saint responded by inviting him to journey in his carriage. Yet barely had the friar taken a seat he started crying out in pain; placed beneath the beautiful cushions of the benches were iron nails the holy prelate used to mortify himself.

The friar, unable to tolerate the pain, begged to be let out, gladly returning to the comfort of traveling by foot. The beauty and grandeur were there to glorify God before the people, and to make them conscious of the importance of Divine things.

The mortification was directed and offered to the Lord and therefore best done in secret — lest one might become tempted to seek admiration and praise of others. A mask of outward humility covering souls full of pride…]. Charles was also responsible for magnificent restoration and rich adornment of many churches in Milan, Rome and elsewhere; the seminaries, schools, convents, archiepiscopal palace and other ecclesiastical structures he built were equally admirable for their beauty.

From the houses of God he removed everything that was unbecoming, such as profane statues and paintings, military flags, memorials of nobility, etc. He enriched churches with both material and spiritual treasures. When it came to altars, sacred vessels and anything else required for Holy Mass and the other offices, St.

Charles spared no expense in order that everything might correspond with the majesty and glory of God. He was of one mind with all the saints in that it is our duty to give God only the best, the most splendid of everything. Charles understood the importance of the majesty and exactness of ritual, and insisted on observance of proper ceremonies even to the smallest particulars, not allowing any deviation. He considered nothing unimportant that appertained to the worship of God, though it might seem so to ordinary people.

Detailed rules were laid down for the clergy in saying the Divine Office, to increase devotion and attention paid to its recitation. The saint insisted on respect and veneration for holy places, to which testify his many decrees regulating behavior in churches.

He forbade chattering and walking about, made men sit separately from women, required women to veil their heads and men to wear cloaks, among other things. All were expected to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with utmost reverence, piety and devotion, and all public and scandalous sinners were excluded as unworthy to be present. Seculars, of course, were not allowed to enter the choir or approach the altars — and no one, not even the king, was exempt from these rules.

The archbishop also restored proper observance of Advent and Lent, of vigils and ember days, into which many abuses had crept. He was especially careful to ensure veneration for the Blessed Sacrament and decreed that it be reverently kept in all churches upon the high altar, in tabernacles of the greatest possible beauty and splendor, with a lamp constantly burning. On no occasion could the Blessed Sacrament be removed to any other and inferior altar, for it would be unbecoming of His Divine Majesty.

Putting all of this into practice cost the saint much difficulty and grief amid great opposition, but he never relented and in the end saw an almost miraculous transformation of his archdiocese. Charles was immersed in the world, from his birth to his death, and yet no man was less of the world.

While men of the world try to avoid suffering and become attached to every comfort, Charles Borromeo, on the contrary, avoided every comfort and sought for greater suffering and bodily affliction. He renounced any sentiments of self-love and became perfectly disengaged from all earthly things and desires, to be absorbed only in God.

The passions that so often blind and influence even the best of men had no place in his heart. Wealth, which is a source of danger to most, in his hands turned into an instrument to advance the glory of God, and an incentive for even greater watchfulness in working out his salvation.

God, in His mercy, amidst all the prosperity let Charles see the worthlessness and vanity of earthly things, fixing his mind on the true riches of heaven. In spite of his important roles and incredible activity and labors, he managed to lived the life of a contemplative. Even among the saints it is exceedingly rare to find one who so perfectly mastered both the active and the contemplative. Prayer was his nourishment and delight; in prayer he was immersed many hours of the day and night.

He was wont to pass whole nights in prayer in the church of St. Ambrose in Milan — before the relics of the saint, and in the Catacombs of Rome. When on the road he spent all the time completely absorbed in prayer. Even while occupied with business he was in the presence of God, mind always raised to heaven. The Fasting of St. Charles by Daniele Crespi. He chastised his body with daily fasts in the later years on bread and water, except on Sundays and feast-days , wore a rough hair-shirt, and scourged himself mercilessly.

He patiently endured heat and cold, even during his arduous journeys, never warming himself at the fire in the winter, nor wearing gloves and furs. Although by nature much inclined to sleep, he allowed himself very little rest, and that on a bed of straw this being perhaps his greatest struggle between body and spirit.

All of this helped mortify his will and sanctify his soul, keeping him detached from the temptations that overwhelm lesser men. By this strictness and austerity of life he also strove to make up for the honors and dignities which were forced upon him. It is no coincidence that almost all great saints have chosen the path of constant mortification. And while many — especially today! Charles from doing his labors in the service of God.

No matter how exhausted, he never neglected any of his religious duties, not even in grave sickness. Likewise he read the Holy Scriptures on his knees. When he heard the Angelus ring he knelt down wherever he might be, even in the mud. Many times during mental prayer or while saying the Office he went into ecstasies. A rule St. Charles inviolably observed was to go to confession every morning — before saying Mass, and to make a spiritual retreat at a monastery twice a year, where he always made a general confession.

Out of respect and devotion to the Holy Sacrifice he always kept rigorous silence unless very important business intervened from the evening prayer and meditation until the next day after Mass and thanksgiving.

It was, he used to say, unbecoming a priest to apply his mind to any temporal business before that great duty. As already mentioned, the saint was indignant upon seeing any irreverence, profanation or lack of honor for God and all things divine. It is then no surprise that he discharged all religious duties not only with the greatest attention but also with the most perfect ceremonial, even in the mountain villages and among the simplest people — because he had no regard to place or persons but only to the majesty of God whom he was serving.

He would rather omit a function than perform it with the least defect or imperfection. Cardinal Borromeo had an extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin; he put all his colleges under her patronage and recommended everyone — even soldiers — to daily recite her Office and rosary.

He was devoted to St. Ambrose whom he took as his patron and model of holiness and whose picture he always kept near; and to the Milanese martyrs Sts. Gervasius and Protasius. Great was his veneration of holy relics. He undertook long journeys to visit relics of saints and martyrs, passing whole nights in prayer before them.

A relic of the True Cross was one he always carried on his body. The Passion of Christ was a constant object of St. He had a great reverence for all its sacred instruments, including the relics of the Holy Nail and especially the Holy Shroud of Turin to which he made several pilgrimages. At Rome he frequently spent long hours and sometimes whole nights on his knees in the chapel of the holy pillar of Flagellation in the basilica of St.

Praxedes, as well as in other places of devotion. Whenever able he visited sacred places, churches, the stations of the Cross — and encouraged others to do likewise. He would spare no effort to try and save souls over whom he had been appointed to watch, fervently working for their conversion and sanctification. But it was above all his personal example and sanctity that converted countless obdurate sinners as well as Protestant heretics. His heart and soul turned solely to God, and never seeking anything but His greater glory, St.

Unlike the feeble prelates and men of our day, he never hesitated to sacrifice his personal popularity, welfare and even safety for the good of the Church and the Faith. He had a sincere contempt for the opinion and false maxims of the world.

His fear of God and hatred of sin made him so upright and uncompromising that neither respect for princes, nor favor of friends and relations, nor promises or threats had any influence over him.

He held truth and sincerity in so great esteem that he could not endure flatterers — who deceive with their words — and would not have anything to do with such persons, considering them a cause of many evils.

Candor and sincerity are required of those who profess to be Catholics, and cardinal Borromeo was always sincere with others, regardless of their rank — Pontiffs and princes included, never allowing himself to be affected by any human respect. He never failed to admonish all who needed it, and was even more ready to perform this act of charity for princes and prelates, knowing they had few or none to tell them the truth.

He met opposition with unalterable firmness and resolutely enforced observance of his decrees. No one would ever be able to divert him from the course or make him change his mind when he knew to be doing the right thing for the glory of God and the good of souls. The saint was very disapproving when he saw prelates yielding, for no sufficiently grave reason, to laity and secular powers.

His readiness to offer up his life in defense of the rights of God and of His Church gave him the fortitude to act regardless of danger. Once criticism was directed at the saint for his nine day long pilgrimage to the Holy Shroud done solely by foot.

Many — including Pope Gregory XIII — censured him, for they saw it unfitting of a prelate to journey in such manner through the country. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. The fact that he always stood up for righteousness and truth and was an incorruptible defender of Divine law and justice brought him the hostility of powerful men, the distrust of the nobility, clergy, and people, and eventually drew upon him the deadly hatred of the wicked, so that his very life was sought.

Placing all his trust in God, he held out against all of this with invincible courage. He was insulted, calumniated and slandered, yet bore all patiently for the love of God, remembering how Jesus endured everything that was sent Him. He accepted the sufferings as mortifications that would further purify his soul and detach him more perfectly from the world.

To be scoffed at, insulted, and abandoned was an honor, for it allowed him to bear what Christ bore, thus bringing him even closer to the Lord. What to others is a cross of pain to St. Charles was a crown of glory. The more bitter the cup became, the more he gave thanks to God for being allowed to suffer with his Savior. Charles said that the whole of the Catholic faith was summed up in the love for the cross. And so he was always eager to suffer more for our Lord, and to offer his life for the love of Him.

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