Borromeo, Federico

BORROMEO, FEDERIGO. - Cardinal, b. in Milano on 18 Aug. 1564 to Giulio Cesare, brother of Gilberto the father of s. Carlo, and Margherita Trivulzio; d. there on 22 Sept. 1631.

Orphaned at a very early age, he found a second father in his great cousin, who encouraged him in humanistic and philosophical studies and enrolled him at the age of fourteen at the University of Bologna; but a few months later conferred upon him in Rovato the ecclesiastical habit (1580) and transferred him to the university of Pavia, assigning him as his residence the nascent Collegio Borromeo. Here the young man, who in Bologna had already enrolled in the "Congregazione della perseveranza" promoted in 1573 by the Jesuit fathers, founded an "Academia accuratorum," or of the diligent, and a "Congregazione segreta" for the most pious. On 5 May 1585 he obtained his degree in theology. The following year he moved to Roma, where he chose as his director s. Filippo Neri, whom he would recall several times in his writings, just as he would preserve the spirit of the Oratory in certain practices of associations he established in Milano, such as "I giovani della Madonna," the "Oratorio dei maritati," and the "Oratorio dei mercadanti." On 22 Dec. 1587 he was created cardinal by Sisto V. s. Carlo (1595), he was preconized archbishop of Milano and, after much reluctance, consecrated bishop by the hand of Clemente VIII on 11 June. On 27 Aug. he made his entrance into the Duomo with such a concourse of people that he was nearly suffocated; however, he took up permanent residence there only in 1601.

Upon the death of Gregorio XV (1623), he was among the papabili, but it appears that a veto was proposed by the King of Spain, due to the twenty-year jurisdictional controversy between the archbishop and the governor of Milano.

In governing the diocese, he continued the reforming work of his cousin in accordance with the directives of the Council of Trent, both by firmly purging the clergy and reforming monasteries and convents, and by attending to the religious formation of the people through catechetical schools; but above all, he repeated his cousin's heroic acts of charity during the painful, renewed calamities of the famine (1625–29) and the plague, spending all his possessions and incurring debts in order to distribute food to the needy and bring religious solace.

He himself wrote that he "lived two lives, the daytime one for business and the evening and nighttime one for studies, and that this was possible for him through his love of solitude." Vivacious in his person and in the movements of his spirit, indeed choleric, as wrote Mongilardi, his second biographer and personal physician, with "very delicate sensibilities and easily offended," as a secret report reads, inclined to melancholy—which he endeavored in a Christian manner to turn into serenity—and to apprehension, he found rest for his spirit not only in his studies, but also in contemplation and in a continuous life of union with God.

His innate inclination toward the interior life made him attentive to mystical phenomena and explains his correspondence with Sister Caterina Vannini, a Sienese convert, as well as with Sister Caterina Paluzzi, a Dominican of Morlupo, and with Ippolita Confalonieri, a nun in S. Marta of Milano; and this excludes the fanciful thesis put forward by Misciattelli.

He also showed himself attentive to the scientific innovations that were beginning to appear in his time and was in correspondence with Galilei as well, though without daring to follow him in the Copernican system.

Especially the foundation and expansion of AMBROSIA (v.), conceived as "a living organ and an ever-active center of higher scholarship and culture," offered him frequent opportunities for intellectual contacts.

His literary output began in his 45th year of age, but was later so abundant that in his last publication, Meditamenta litteraria, he gave information on the genesis and purpose of no fewer than ninety-five works, varied in bulk and content, from topics of moral and mystical theology to political considerations, such as De gratia principum, from commentaries on Sacred Scripture to conclave experiences, from accounts of pastoral visits and speeches to notices on mathematics and cosmography. Mention should be made separately of the Philagio, in which he collected brief biographies of devout persons, among which several are valuable for their psychological insight; Batti highlighted an outline for a life of Sister Virginia de Leyva (the Nun of Monza), which B. intended to include in II.
F. B. also excelled as a patron of artists. Of his "exquisite aesthetic intuition," to use Galbiati's phrase, the Musaeum is an elegant example, and especially vivid testimony to it is the art gallery intended as a complement to the library, in whose construction he played a major role as advisor and critic. To it he annexed an Academy of painting, sculpture, and architecture, where young people were admitted to copy classical models, just as alongside the college of doctors he established the college of pupils and the trilingual college, for the training and refinement of future doctors, and just as he established an Hermathenic Academy of sciences and eloquence at the major seminary. Already in Roma he had taken under his protection the Accademia del disegno, founded in 1593.

In the diocese, he oversaw the restoration and embellishment of minor churches as well as the Duomo, and finally commissioned from Crespi the model for the colossal statue of s. Carlo in Arona, erected as a palladium in the region dear to the youth of his venerated cousin and threatened by the danger of heretical infiltrations.

On the occasion of the third centenary of his death, there also appeared the interesting study by A. Bavera, L'opera scientifica-letteraria di F. B. (reprint of articles published in Vita e Pensiero in 1918-19), Milano 1931; the lively biography, rich in anecdotes, by P. Bellezza, F. B. nella vita, nell'opera, negli scritti, ibid. 1931, in which mention is made of some early printings not noted in previous lists, and the important volume—whose polemical tone has been noted—by A. Saba, F. B. e i mistici del suo tempo, con la vita e la corrispondenza inedita di Caterina Vannini da Siena, Firenze 1933, in response to P. Misciattelli, Caterina Vannini, Milano 1933; M. Petrucchi, Omaggio a F. B. L'uomo e la storia, Bologna 1940, p. 23 ff. Fausta Casolini