St. Francis Borgia, S.J.

(1510-1572)

Alphonso Borgia was known in history as Pope Callixtus III (1455-1458). His nephew, Rodrigo Borgia, became Pope  Alexander VI in 1492. He was known for his corruption and secularity. Among Pope Alexander's eight illegitimate children are included the infamous and deadly Caesar Borgia, a political leader described by Machiavelli in The Prince.  The pope’s daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, married the duke of Ferrara and was a patron of learning and art. The Borgias reportedly poisoned many people, including family members, to gain political advantage and wealth. They were referred to as the first criminal family. However, a later member of this family, Francis Borgia was canonized as a saint.

Francis Borgia was born in 1510, the great grandson of Pope Alexander, and inherited the title, Duke of Gandia  [Gandia is at the northern tip of Costa Blanca, is the second city of the Province of Valencia (in south-east Spain).]

After the death of his father, Francis was on the way to assume his inherited title as Duke.  While traveling, brilliantly escorted, through Alcalá, Francis encountered a poor man whom the servants of the Inquisition were leading to prison. It was Ignatius of Loyola. The young nobleman exchanged a glance of emotion with the prisoner, little dreaming that one day they should be united by the closest ties.

In 1529, Emporer Charles V gave Francis in marriage the hand of Eleanor de Castro, at the same time making him Marquess of Lombay.  The newly-created Marquess of Lombay enjoyed a privileged station.  In 1538, at Toledo, an eighth child was born to Francis and Eleanor.  Sadly, in 1546, Eleanor died.

Two years after his wife died (in 1548 at age 38), Francis did something that astonished all the nobles of Spain; he gave up his Dukedom to his son Charles and joined the Society of Jesus, begging Ignatius Loyola to accept him as a novice.  In three years, he was ordained a Jesuit priest. So many people came to his first Mass that they had to set up an altar outdoors, but his Superior tested him by treating him in exactly the opposite way he had been used to all his forty-one years of life.

He who had once been a Duke had to help the cook, carrying wood for the fire and sweeping the kitchen. When he served food to the priests and brothers, he had to kneel down in front of them all and beg them to forgive him for being so clumsy! Still he never once complained or grumbled. The only time he became angry was when anyone treated him with respect as if he was still a Duke. Once a doctor who had to take care of a painful wound Francis had gotten said to him: "I am afraid, my lord, that I have to hurt your grace." The saint answered that he would not hurt him more than he was right then by calling him "my lord" and "your grace."

He was elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus in July, 1565, by thirty-one votes out of thirty-nine, to succeed Fr. Diego Lainez.
                                                      
When he was made Superior General of the Jesuits, he organized a world-wide missionary effort for Jesuits, sending scores of Jesuits to the Far East and the New World.  Through all such success, St. Francis Borgia remained completely humble.

He managed to create the set of rules for the Society of Jesus that helped organize the world-wide provinces into a united band, and systematically united them in their formation and studies (creating what was known as the Ratio Studiorum). 
The task of Borgia was to establish, first at Rome, then in all the provinces, wisely regulated novitiates and flourishing houses of study, and to develop the cultivation of the interior life by establishing in all of these the custom of a daily hour of prayer.

A pestilential fever invaded Rome in 1566, and Borgia organized methods of relief, established ambulances, and distributed forty Jesuits to care for plague victims.   When the disease struck two years later, the pope asked Fr. Borgia to organize the efforts in safeguarding the city.

Among his many generous deeds as Superior General of the Society, Borgia assisted, through his family foundation and connections, in founding and endowing schools as the Roman College, later supported by Pope Gregory XIII  (later called the Gregorian University). 

After years of diplomacy, administration, and travels through Spain, Portugal and other places, Francis’ health began to wear out due to his penances and austerities.

In 1572, Suffering from disease, wishing to die at Rome, he departed in a litter on 3 September, spent eight days at Loretto, and then, despite the sufferings caused by the the bumpy travels, ordered the bearers to push forward with the utmost speed for Rome. It was expected that any instant might see the end of his agony. They reached Rome on 28 September. The dying man halted his litter and thanked God. He was borne to his cell which was soon invaded by cardinals and prelates.

For two days Francis Borgia, fully conscious, awaited death, received those who visited him and blessed all his children and grandchildren.
Shortly after midnight on 30 September, his earthly life came to a peaceful end.

In the Catholic Church he had been one of the most striking examples of the conversion of souls after the Renaissance, and for the Society of Jesus he had been the protector chosen by Providence to whom, after St. Ignatius, it owes most.