Text from The Roman Breviary.
Translated out of Latin into English by
John, Marquess of Bute, K.T.
Volume II.
Summer.
1879.
Feast Day Of Saint Charles.
Confessor.
4 November.
Double.
All from the Common Office for a Bishop and Confessor, (page 842), except the following.
First Vespers.
Prayer throughout the Office.
Lord, give unto Thy Church for an unsleeping warder Thine holy Confessor Bishop Charles; upon Earth his carefulness did make him glorious as a Shepherd, there where he is may his Prayerfulness make him effectual as a bedesman, pleading with Thee to make us love Thee more.
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of The Holy Ghost, one God, World without end.
Amen.
A Commemoration is made of the Octave.
Then of the Holy Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola.
Antiphon and Verse and Answer from The Common Office, (page 829).
Prayer.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that we who keep the Solemn Memorial of Thy Blessed Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, may find succour with Thee in their Prayers on our behalf.
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of The Holy Ghost, one God, World without end.
Amen.
Mattins.
First Nocturn.
Lessons from Scripture according to the Season.
Second Nocturn.
Fourth Lesson.
Charles, of the noble family of Borromeo, was born [on the 2nd day of October, in the year of Our Lord 1538,] at [the Castle of Arona, fourteen miles from] Milan.
In foretoken of his holy life, God caused a bright light to shine by night over the chamber where his mother lay in travail.
As soon as his age would allow him, he received the tonsure. When he was twelve years old, he was made Abbat [sic] [of the rich Benedictine Abbey of Saint Gratinian and Saint Felin,] but reminded his father that the revenues thereof were not to be used as mere family property.
His father, to whom the administration of these revenues fell during his son’s non-age, still gave them forthwith over to him, and whatever was left over, he gave to the Poor.
While he was young, he studied Letters at Pavia. He kept his purity thoroughly, so that he scared away the unclean women, of whom many were set upon him, to overthrow his self-control.
In the twenty-third year of his age, his uncle Pope Pius IV, made him a Cardinal, in which dignity he was a burning and shining light of Godliness and all Graces before the whole of the Sacred College.
About forty days afterwards, the same Pope created him Archbishop of Milan. As such, it was his great desire to order the Church committed to his charge in accordance with the requirements of the most holy Council of Trent, which was in great part by his labours brought to a conclusion.
To raise up the degraded lives of the people, he oftentimes held Synods, but himself set an example of deep Godliness.
He worked earnestly to purge the parts about the Alps and borders of Switzerland of heresy, and brought many of the heretics to the Christian Faith.
Fifth Lesson.
Charity was the brightest mark of his life. His Principality of Oria (in the Kingdom of Naples) he sold for forty thousand Crowns, and gave the whole sum to the Poor in one day.
Twenty thousand Crowns being left him as a legacy [by Virginia, widow of Count Frederick Borromeo,] he gave the whole amount to the Poor.
The incomes of the benefices wherewith he had been loaded by his uncle, he spent upon the needs of the Poor, except what he used for himself.
When the plague grievously raged in Milan, he gave up to the sick Poor the furniture of his own house, even to his own bedding, and thenceforward slept upon the boards.
He constantly visited the sick, cheered them by his fatherly kindness, and wonderfully comforted them, ministering to them with his own hands the Sacraments of The Church.
At the same time, he drew near to plead for them with God in lowly entreaty, and ordered a Public Procession wherein he walked himself carrying a Cross, with a rope halter round his neck, and his bare feet bleeding from the stones, and fain to turn away the Divine Anger by offering himself as a scapegoat for the sins of his people.
He was a stout defender of the freedom of The Church. But, in the Church, he was an earnest reformer of discipline, and once, when he was engaged in Prayer, [the paid agent of] some conspirators took a shot at him with a blunderbuss, but, though the ball struck him, the Power of God kept him unharmed.*
[* The Latinity of this passage is very quaint. “A seditiosis, dum orationi insisteret, tormenti bellici laxatâ rotâ, igneo globulo percussus, Divinâ virtute etc.”
[The ball struck upon his Rochet, near the middle vertebræ of the back, and, leaving a mark upon the Rochet, fell down to his feet. Some small shot pierced his clothes, but stopped at his skin, and his Cassock was pierced with small shot in several places.
[When the part that was struck was examined, a light bruise was discovered, with a small swelling on the skin, which mark continued even after his death.
[The would-be murderer was a Priest, named La Farina. Saint Charles would take no measures against his enemies, but they ultimately fell into the hands of public justice.
[La Farina and another were hung, two beheaded, and one condemned to the galleys. For this last, the Saint procured mitigation and ultimate Pardon, and made every effort to save the lives of the others, for whose relations he provided.
[The Religious Order (The Humiliati) from which the attempt proceeded, and of which three of the executed felons were Provosts, was abolished by the Pope, Saint Pius V. (Alban Butler).]
Sixth Lesson.
He was remarkable for his abstinence. He very often Fasted upon nothing but bread and water, and sometimes nothing but Lupines.
He tamed his body by depriving himself of sleep, by very rough haircloth, and by constant scourging.
He was an earnest practiser of lowliness and meekness. However much he was taken up with business, he never gave himself relaxation from Prayer and from Preaching the Word of God.
He built many Churches, Convents, and Schools. He wrote much matter, useful more especially for the good of Bishops.
The publication of the “Parish Priests’ Catechism” was due to his care.
In October 1584, he withdrew himself, for the purpose of making a Retreat, to [what is called] the “Sacro Monte” of Varallo, an hill [sic] whereon [many Sacred subjects and especially] the incidents of the Lord’s sufferings are represented in life-size groups of coloured figures.**
[** It is very curious and is much visited from curiosity as well as devotion. The Chapels in which Saint Charles Prayed most in his last Retreat are those of The Agony In The Garden and of Our Lord In The Sepulchre.]
[On 24 October 1584] he was taken ill of a [tertian] ague, [but concealed it,] and lived there for some days a life of torture by voluntary suffering, but of sweetness by thoughts of Christ’s woes.
After his return to Milan, [which he reached in a Litter upon All Souls’ Day,] his sickness became hopeless, and early in the night between 3 November and 4 November, in the forty-seventh year of his own age, and in that of Our Lord 1584, covered with ashes and sack-cloth, and with his eyes fixed upon the image of Christ Crucified, he exchanged Earth for Heaven.
He was famous for Miracles, and Pope Paul V, numbered him among the Saints.
Third Nocturn.
Lessons from Luke xii. 35, with the Homily of Saint Gregory, (page 859). The last is omitted, or read as one with the Eighth Lesson, to leave room for . . .
Ninth Lesson.
For the Holy Martyrs.
Vitalis was a slave, and Agricola his owner. They were arrested at Bologna in the persecution under Diocletian and Maximian, for Preaching Jesus Christ.
Vitalis, the more he was implored and threatened to change his mind, so much the more proclaimed himself a worshipper and servant of Christ, and after bravely bearing a course of divers tortures, gave up his Soul in Prayer to God.
The execution of Agricola had been put off, in the hope that the agonies of his servant might scare him into denying Christ; but the sight only hardened him.
He was therefore crucified, and so became sharer and fellow with his slave Vitalis in the glory of testification.
Their bodies were laid in the Jews’ burying place, where they were found by Saint Ambrose, who removed them to an [sic] hallowed and honourable sepulchre.
At Lauds, a Commemoration is made of the Octave.
Then, of The Holy Martyrs.
Antiphon.
The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; ye are of more value than many Sparrows.
Versicle.
Let the Righteous rejoice before God.
Answer.
Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
Prayer as at the Commemoration at Vespers.
At Second Vespers, a Commemoration of the Octave.
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