Did St. Charles Borromeo Invent Social Distancing?

St. Charles Borromeo and the plague.

  

In Sunday's Boston Globe's Art section, there was an article by Matthew Guerrieri about the composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), April 12, 2020, N3.

The composer Charpentier, among his numerous works, wrote oratorios--sacred stories, sung.  Pestis Mediolanensis, "The Plague of Milan", is about the bubonic plague and St. Charles Borromeo.

As some today adhere to more church gatherings rather than social distancing, more so was true in the sixteenth century.  In fact, during a Eucharistic procession by Pope Gregory, 80 Romans collapsed along the route.  Borromeo quickly ceased that tradition.  In fact, he carried a stick to keep people at a distance and ordered that the priests in his diocese carry sticks, also.  This order was so detailed and effective that the city of Milan recorded them for future reference. 

Borromeo started a new tradition.  He had the church bells ring seven times a day and asked the people to come to their windows to sing the prayers and litanies.  Can you imagine?  Can't you just hear hundreds of people praying harmoniously to heaven for mercy?  I bet Pestis Mediolanensis has operatic choruses reverberating the antiphons and responses to psalms and litanies.

Can we do this?  Let us all in unison send out our prayers for deliverance from all evil, plagues and disasters.  Come to your window and sing out for mercy.