Saint Francis Borgia

Saint Francis Borgia was a powerful Spanish nobleman, Duke of Gandía and Viceroy of Catalonia, a husband and the father of eight children. After his wife’s death he entered the Society of Jesus, became a priest, and in 1565 became the third Superior General of the order. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on September 30.

He was born on October 28, 1510, in Gandía in the Kingdom of Valencia, the eldest son of Juan, third Duke of Gandía, and Juana of Aragon, a granddaughter of King Ferdinand the Catholic. On his father’s side he was a great-grandson of Pope Alexander VI. In 1528 he came to the court of Emperor Charles V. A year later, through the Empress Isabella, he married Leonor de Castro of Portugal and received the title of Marquis of Lombay.

In 1539 the empress died, and Francis escorted her body to Granada. The bull of canonization relates that the sight of her disfigured face, uncovered so that the body could be identified, shook him so deeply that he resolved to leave the world if he outlived his wife; he later used to say that the empress’s death had given him life. That same year he became Viceroy of Catalonia. He generously supported the poor and began to correspond with Saint Ignatius of Loyola. On his father’s death in 1543 he became Duke of Gandía; there he founded a university, where he himself earned a doctorate in theology.

His wife died in 1546. In 1548, with the permission of Paul III, he secretly made his vows in the Society of Jesus, keeping the duchy for the time being in order to secure his children’s future. In 1550 he traveled to Rome, but when he heard that Julius III wanted to make him a cardinal, he returned to Spain. In 1551, with the consent of Charles V, he handed over his titles and estates to his eldest son and was ordained a priest. Later, too, he refused the dignity of cardinal.

He became known as a preacher in Spain and Portugal. In 1554 Ignatius appointed him commissary general of the order in Spain, where many new houses and colleges were founded at that time. In 1565, after the death of Diego Laínez, he was elected Superior General against his will. During the seven years of his government he published the rules of the order, supported the building of the Church of the Gesù, and sent Jesuits to Florida, New Spain, and Peru. In 1567 he admitted Saint Stanislaus Kostka to the novitiate in Rome.

In 1571 Pius V asked him to accompany Cardinal Michele Bonelli on an embassy to Spain, Portugal, and France concerning the league against the Turks. The journey exhausted Francis, who was already ill. According to the bull of canonization, on returning to Rome he joyfully spoke the words of Simeon, “Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine.” He died in Rome during the night of September 30 to October 1, 1572.

Pope Urban VIII beatified him in 1624, and Clement X canonized him on April 12, 1671, together with four other saints, among them Rose of Lima. The bull of canonization set his memorial on October 3, and the Jesuits celebrate it on that day.