Friday, 11/4/16
Today the church honors St. Charles Borromeo who came from the
nobility in northern Italy, but on his feast day I can’t help thinking too about
St. Phillip Neri, who was also from northern Italy’s nobility.
Now, before you object to my talking about two saints, let
me bringing in a third one, St. Jerome. On his Feast Day, September 30, I quoted
lines from a poem about Jerome. It said he had a terrible temper, but he made
up for it by gathering hundreds of scattered scrolls to put them together to
make our first complete Bible.
A Catholic poet, Phyllis McGinley, writing about both his
temper and his writing said, “He filled
the world with a Christian leaven, It takes all kinds to make a heaven.”
Charles and Phillip were an example of its taking all kinds
to make a heaven. When they were both young men, the uncle of Charles, who was
Pope Pius IV, made him the Archbishop of Milan, while the uncle of Phillip, a wealthy
business, put him in charge of a large trading company in Naples.
The big difference between the two saints became very
obvious. Charles became a strict disciplinarian
for the priests, nuns, and lay people of Milan; even setting up the Inquisition
to make them toe the line.
At the same time Phillip became a Socrates, wandering the
streets of Rome, giving himself to finding respectable lodging for unhappy
street girls. He was also drawing a large following of young men who shared his
interest in the mysteries of our Faith.
Rome’s senior clergy, much taken with the work of Phillip
with young people, insisted that Phillip be ordained a priest, and they gave
him and his young followers an oratory where they could study and pray together.
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