The most hardened anti-Catholic hearts can come to love and respect a Saint when they learn the truth of his history. Saint Charles Borromeo, among other things was the great and holy Archbishop of Milan, Italy - where he died in 1584. He provided great services to the Catholic Church but also to his Archdiocese which he did not neglect. He continually warned his flock that their sins and ingratitude to God would force a Divine punishment to come upon them. And soon thereafter it did, in 1576, in the form of the great plague. He worked heroically to assist his sheep in every aspect of their grave crisis until they were finally reconciled to God and His chastisement ceased. He was the only leader of the great and important city of Milan that did not flee and abandon the people when the plague broke out.

The American writer and journalist Mark Twain visited Milan in the summer of 1867. At the tomb of St. Charles Borromeo in the Milan Cathedral, Mark Twain - famous for his irreligious attitude toward the Church - came to know how the Saint really lived the love of God - especially during the devouring plague which paralyzed the great city from 1576 -1577. Mark Twain was inspired to write these lines:

"Now we shall descend into the crypt, under the grand altar of Milan Cathedral, and receive an impressive sermon from lips that have been silent and hands that have been gestureless for these three hundred years. This is the last resting place of a good man, a warm-hearted unselfish man ; a man whose whole life was given to succoring the poor, encouraging the faint-hearted, visiting the sick; in relieving distress, whenever and wherever he found it. His heart, his hand and his purse were always open. With his story in one's mind, we can almost see his benignant countenance moving calmly among the haggard faces of Milan in the days when the plague swept the city; - brave when all others were cowards, full of compassion where pity had been crushed out of all other breasts by the instinct of self-preservation gone mad with terror, cheering all, praying with all, helping all with hand and brain and purse, at a time when parents forsook their children, the friend deserted the friend, and the brother turned away from the sister while her pleadings were still wailing in his ears. This was good Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop of Milan."

The divine love that showed itself in the charity of St. Charles is the secret of the life of every Saint, and can soften even the most hardened hearts and cynical minds of those who do not know or love God.