Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster

Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954), Cardinal Archbishop of Milan during the difficult period of the Second World War, was one of the high prelates of the milanese Curia who more than any other became interested in the Sanctuary of Corbetta and the growth of his museum.

Indeed, it was under his special patronage in 1938, to mark the fourth centenary of the birth of St. Charles, that was opened to the public the museal complex of "Rooms of St. Charles," that he himself came to visit, bestowing lavish gifts ornaments and works of art that strengthen even more the privileged relationship that traditionally has existed between the archbishopric of Milan and our sanctuary. Of those days are many photographs, impressions and comments who the same Schuster reported in his diaries, symbol of the love he felt for his people from whom it was deeply reciprocated. Of the pious and generous spirit, in that year he was carrying on foot from Milan to Turin to attend public exposition of the Holy Shroud retracing the same journey made ​​at the end of the sixteenth century by St. Charles Borromeo and then wanted to pay tribute to all steps carried out by his holy predecessor.

He became subsequently interested in the result because Pope Pius XII recognized to the Madonna of Corbetta the role of patron of the area, but he died the year before the crowning that (if a miracle) was made by the hands of his great successor on the chair of Milan, Giovanni Battista Montini, who will then be called to the role of Pope of the Roman Catholic Church under the name of Paul VI.