A Heroic Figure

Last weekend an important football match took place in Milan's San Siro stadium. It was not a championship decider. It was not a cup final. It was not an international match with Italy playing. It was a match which takes place twice each season, a league encounter between AC Milan and Inter Milan. Whenever the two play each other, passions of both players and supporters run high.

When I think of Milan, there come to mind a number of mental pictures. I see the great castle-home of the aristocratic Sforza family; I see the glorious cathedral that appears to be covered in giant candles on a birthday cake; I see the Galleria on one side of the cathedral's piazza; there is the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with Leonardo's 'Last Supper'. But my mental pictures include two passionate men whose passions had nothing to do with football. Their names were Carlo Borromeo and Saint Ambrose. They are linked with two Milan churches, Borromeo with the cathedral of his day (1538 to 1584), Ambrose with the basilica di Sant' Ambrogio (basilica of Saint Ambrose). They are very different buildings and in some ways very different men. However, both men were passionate about their people and their faith. Carlo Borromeo went into debt during a famine in Milan so that he could feed some of the poorest people in his archdiocese and during an outbreak of plague visited many who had contracted the disease, endangering his own life.

St Ambrose was also a compassionate man and one who stood firmly fothe church's principles. At one point in his career he brought an emperor whom he judged to be guilty of serious sin to his knees in repentance.

You can read about both men in the first two chapters of my book, 'Unpacking Italy: Passions of a Traveller'. It is available in hardcovers, in paperback form, or as an Ebook. Enjoy your reading!

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