BORROMEO, CARLO (1538–1584), reforming archbishop of Milan, cardinal, and canonized saint of the Roman Catholic church. Carlo Borromeo, second son of Count Gilberto Borromeo and Margherita de' Medici, was born at Arona, northwest of Milan, on October 2, 1538. From 1552 he attended the University of Pavia, where he received a doctorate in civil and canon law in 1559. At the end of that year his maternal uncle, Gian Angelo de' Medici, was elected Pope Pius IV and immediately bestowed upon his twenty-one-year-old nephew the archbishopric of Milan, a collection of other wealthy benefices, and a cardinal's hat. Borromeo, however, proved by his seriousness and personal austerity to be an atypical beneficiary of nepotism; thus when his elder brother died heirless and his family attempted to persuade him to revert to lay status, marry, and assume the noble title, he refused and instead had himself secretly ordained a priest July 17, 1563.

Borromeo's...