«Con ser Santo puso a riesgo de descomponerse mucho esta ciudad y estado»: Charles Borromeo from archbishop of Milan to saint of the Monarchy

Abstract

Among the many saints of the Counter Reformation Charles Borromeo is one of the most cited cases. The aim of this article is to break down the elements of his sanctity, according to the image of counter-reformist archbishop present in great part of the historiography, analyzing the process that created that image. Several specialists have been interested in the mechanisms of a canonization that was carried out relatively fast: the cardinal and archbishop of Milan died in November 3, 1584, and was elevated to the glory of the altars in July 1610. However, it still lacks a picture capable of composing the numerous and scattered tesserae that the hagiography, in the first place, and the historiography, in the second place, have collected. The mosaic created in this study shows the presence of numerous dissonant elements in relationship to the hagiographic tradition and to the historiography, which has most recently dealt with his holiness from a purely censitary and inquisitorial perspective. In this new analysis of the process of his canonization, it is possible to identify a stratification of the different problems and tensions that appeared both in ecclesiastical and lay circles. To overcome such obstacles, the pressure applied by a large number of leading groups in Milan succeeded in defeating the uncertainties and delays of the Roman Curia, in order to obtain a new saint for the city that stood as a great defender of the post-Tridentine religiosity.