Portal:Saints/Selected biography/19

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Saint Charles Borromeo (Italian: Carlo Borromeo; latinized: Carolus Borromeus) (October 2, 1538 – November 4, 1584) was an Italian saint and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

The son of Giberto II Borromeo, conte (count) of Arona, and Margherita de' Medici, Carlo Borromeo was born at the castle of Arona on Lago Maggiore. The aristocratic Borromeo family's coat of arms included the Borromean rings, sometimes taken to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

When he was about twelve years old, Carlo's uncle, Giulio Cesare Borromeo, resigned to him an abbacy (the office and dignity of an abbot), the revenue of which he applied wholly in charity to the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia. In 1554 his father died, and although he had an elder brother, Count Federigo, he was requested by the family to take the management of their domestic affairs. After a time, he resumed his studies, and in 1559 he took his doctoral degree. In 1560 his uncle, Cardinal Angelo de' Medici, was raised to the pontificate as Pius IV.

Borromeo was made protonotary apostolic, entrusted with both the public and the privy seal of the ecclesiastical state, and created cardinal with the administration of Romagna and the March of Ancona, and the supervision of the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Knights of Malta.