1572 St.
Francis Borgia humble Jesuit priest
Sancti Francísci
Bórgiæ, Sacerdótis e
Societáte Jesu et Confessóris, cujus dies natális
prídie Kaléndas Octóbris recensétur.
St.
Francis Borgia, confessor, priest of the Society
of Jesus, whose birthday is mentioned on the 30th of September.
Francis was a
young nobleman at the court of the
King of Spain. He
became a Duke when he was only thirty-three and lived a happy, peaceful
life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children. But unlike so many
other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian gentleman, a
true man of God and his great joy was to receive Holy Communion often.
This happy life ended when his beloved wife died. Francis
did something
that astonished all the nobles of Spain; he gave up his Dukedom to his
son Charles and became 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.
He delighted above all in ecclesiastical compositions, and
these
display a remarkable contrapuntal style and bear witness to the skill
of the composer, justifying indeed the assertion that, in the sixteenth
century and prior to Palestrina, Borgia was one of the chief restorers
of sacred music.
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." It was not too long before the humble priest accomplished
wonderful works for God's glory as he preached everywhere and advised
many important people. He spread the Society of Jesus all over Spain
and in Portugal. When he was made Superior General of the Jesuits, he
sent missionaries all over the world. Under his guidance, the Jesuits
grew to be a very great help to the Church in many lands. Through
all such success, St. Francis Borgia remained completely humble.
Francis Borgia y Aragon,
SJ (RM)
Born at Gandia, Valencia, Spain in 1510; died shortly after
midnight on
September 30, 1572, in Rome; canonized 1671.
The name of Borgia (Borja) is understandably ill-sounding;
however,
Saint Francis was outstanding among those who brought honor to it. He
was the scion of the family that produced Pope Callistus III
(1455-1458) and a great-grandson of the man who became Pope Alexander
VI of unhappy memory (who had fathered four children at the time of his
elevation). Alexander VI had purchased the dukedom of Gandia for his
son Peter and, upon Peter's death, gave it to another son, John, who
was murdered soon after his marriage.
Francis was the eldest of 14 children born to John's son,
the third
duke of Gandia, and Juana of Aragon, daughter of the illegitimate some
of King Ferdinand of Aragon. Two of his brothers became cardinals, one
an abbot, one an archbishop, and two of his sisters became abbesses.
Francis studied rhetoric and philosophy under his uncle, the archbishop
of Saragossa.
For ten years from 1528 the marquis of Lombay, Saint
Francis, was in
the service of Emperor Charles V, to whom he was an adviser. At
Alcalá de Henares, Francis was impressed by the appearance of a
man whom he saw being taken to prison by the Inquisitors: Saint
Ignatius of Loyola. Francis accompanied the emperor on a campaign in
Provence. At age 19 (1529), Francis married Eleanor de Castro, by whom
he had eight children.
In 1539 the Empress Isabella died, and Francis and his wife
Eleanor
accompanied the funeral procession from Toledo to Elvira. When they
arrived at the tombs the coffin was opened, and the sight of the
decomposing body of the empress, who in her lifetime had been so
beautiful, had a profound effect on Francis. Thereafter, he devoted
himself to fervent prayer and took Communion frequently. He also made
his first contacts with the itinerant Jesuits.
That same year, Emperor Charles V appointed him imperial
viceroy in
Catalonia, which has its capital at Barcelona. He proved a model
governor; but he was not acceptable to everybody because of his
determined efforts to suppress corrupt administration of justice by the
nobility and magistrates. He later wrote: "It was when I was Viceroy of
Catalonia that God prepared me to be general of the Society of Jesus."
He prayed as much as he could without neglecting his duties or growing
family. The frequency of his sacramental communions caused unfavorable
comment.
In 1543, his father died
and Francis inherited all his titles,
including that of duke of Gandia, and estates. He served for a time as
master of the household of Prince Philip. When King John of Portugal
refused to recognize his position in Philip's household, who had broken
off his engagement to John's daughter, Francis retired to his duchy
where he planned to build a Jesuit college. He used this time to found
a Dominican monastery on his estate, restore a hospital, fortify Gandia
against Moorish attacks and Barbary pirates. His wife also planned to
build a monastery, but, much to Francis's great grief, she died in 1546
before completing the plans, leaving eight children of whom the
youngest was eight years old.
Shortly after the death of Doña Eleanor, Blessed
Peter Favre
briefly visited the duke. Peter left for Rome with a message to Saint
Ignatius that his host had vowed to become a Jesuit. Ignatius advised
him to wait until he had settled his children and finished the
foundations that he had begun. Meanwhile he was to study for a
doctorate in theology at the university in Gandia, which he had
inaugurated. Francis complied until he was called to court the
following year. Thereupon he wrote urgently to Saint Ignatius who allow
him to make his profession privately. The 40-year-old Francis left for
Rome on August 31, 1550, made his profession, and returned to Spain
within four months.
Having received permission from the emperor, Francis made
over his
titles and estates to his eldest son, Charles, and provided for his
other children. Retiring to the hermitage at Oñate near Loyola,
Francis shaved his head and beard, donned clerical robes, and was
ordained a priest in 1551 during Whitsuntide. His action, which on the
advice of Saint Ignatius Loyola he had kept a secret until the last
moment, caused a sensation and earned him the nickname 'the Holy Duke.'
The first Mass that he celebrated at Vergara was so crowded that it had
to be held outdoors and lasted several hours. The pope had granted a
plenary indulgence for assisting at the Mass.
He did all he could--through humility and extreme
asceticism--to make
men forget his exalted origins, but his abilities could not be hidden.
His preaching drew huge crowds in Spain and Portugal. He went through
the villages with a bell, calling the children to catechism,
instructing and preaching especially in Guipuzcoa. Father Francis's
superior in the house treated him severely to counter the effects of
his previous exalted position.
The superior had little to worry about, however. Francis
imposed upon
himself severe mortifications. Upon his conversion Francis was an
exceedingly fat man, but his physical austerities soon returned him to
normal proportions. When he was required to curb his mortifications
under obedience, he would devise physical discomforts to remind him of
his position before God. Later in life he believed that he had been
imprudent in his mortifications.
During this period of
preaching throughout Spain, he became acquainted
with Saint Teresa of Ávila. He was one of the first to recognize
her greatness. Later during a return to Spain he was instrumental in
protecting her from her persecutors when her confessor insisted that
her visitations were wiles of the devil. Francis, who had himself
received many tokens of divine grace, needed only one conversation with
her to be convinced that her visions were indeed divine, and after that
Saint Teresa was put under Jesuit confessors.
In 1554 Saint Ignatius Loyola appointed him provincial for
those
countries and the Indies. In this office Francis popularized the then
little-known Jesuits, founding numerous houses and colleges, attracting
many good recruits, and ministering to the abdicated Charles V and the
dowager queen Joanna, who had gone mad after the death of her husband
fifty years earlier. Queen Joanna had a special aversion to the clergy,
but allowed Francis to comfort her on her deathbed.
There was enmity between Saint Francis and the Inquisition,
and King
Philip II listened to the calumnies of those jealous of the saint.
Nevertheless, he continued his work in Portugal until 1561, when he was
summoned to Rome by Pope Pius IV at the instigation of the Jesuit
general, Father Laynez. Among those who regularly attended the sermons
of Saint Francis were Cardinal Charles Borromeo and Cardinal Ghislieri
(Pius V).
Four years later was unanimously elected father general of
the Jesuits.
The order made great progress during his seven-year rule; he has,
indeed, been called its second founder. In fact, it is that Francis put
the roof on the building whose foundations were laid by Saint Ignatius.
He revised the rule of the Society in 1567.
Francis was particularly concerned with the improvement of
the Roman
College (now the Gregorian University), which he had already partially
endowed. He encouraged the Jesuits to engage in foreign missionary
work. He built Sant'Andrea on the Quirinal, began the famous
Gésu church in Rome, established the Polish province, built
colleges in France, and opened American missions. In 1566, when the
plague ravaged Rome, he raised money to relieve the poor and sent his
priests to tend the sick in hospitals.
As general of the Society of Jesus, Francis was one of the
leading
figures of the counter-reformation. Francis was a typical saint of the
Spanish nobility: He was courteous, humble, refined, kind, and generous
to others but austere to himself. He would sign himself "Francis the
Sinner," until Saint Ignatius ordered him not to do so. As the bishop
of Cartagena said in a letter to a friend, he was "a model duke and a
perfect Christian gentleman."
In 1571, Pope Saint Pius V chose Saint Francis to accompany
a mission
led by Cardinal Bonelli to several European capitals to gather support
for a crusade against the Turks; his reputation had preceded him, and
crowds gathered, shouting: "We want to see the saint" and clamoring to
hear him preach. But the fatigue entailed aggravated his failing
health. When he arrived at the home of his cousin, Duke Alfonso of
Ferrara, he was so ill that he was sent to Rome on a litter.
In his last moments, as
his brother Thomas rehearsed their names,
Francis pronounced a blessing on each of his children and
grandchildren. When Francis was no longer able to speak, a painter was
sent to his bedside to record his appearance. Francis saw him,
expressed his displeasure with his dying hands and eyes, and turned his
face away so that nothing could be done. The saint quietly died two
days after returning to Rome. He was typical of the patrician saints:
self-effacing, determined, enterprising, winning people of all ranks by
his kindness and courtesy (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh, Yeo).
Portrayed as a Jesuit holding a skull crowned with an
imperial diadem.
Sometimes the skull is on a book; other times he is shown kneeling
before the Blessed Sacrament (Roeder).
St. Francis Borgia (1510-1572)
Today's saint grew up in an important family in 16th-century
Spain,
serving in the imperial court and quickly advancing in his career. But
a series of events—including the death of his beloved wife—made Francis
Borgia rethink his priorities. He gave up public life, gave away his
possessions and joined the new and little-known Society of Jesus.
Religious life proved to be the right choice. He felt drawn
to spend
time in seclusion and prayer, but his administrative talents also made
him a natural for other tasks. He helped in the establishment of what
is now the Gregorian University in Rome. Not long after his ordination
he served as political and spiritual adviser to the emperor. In Spain,
he founded a dozen colleges.
At 55, Francis was elected head of the Jesuits. He focused
on the
growth of the Society of Jesus, the spiritual preparation of its new
members and spreading the faith in many parts of Europe. He was
responsible for the founding of Jesuit missions in Florida, Mexico and
Peru.
Francis Borgia is often regarded as the second founder of
the Jesuits.
He died in 1572 and was canonized 100 years later.
St. Francis Borgia (Spanish FRANCISCO DE BORJA Y ARAGON )
Francis Borgia, born 28 October, 1510, was the son of Juan Borgia,
third Duke of Gandia, and of Juana of Aragon; died 30 September, 1572.
The future saint was unhappy in his ancestry. His grandfather, Juan
Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome on 14
June, 1497, by an unknown hand, which his family always believed to be
that of Cæsar Borgia. Rodrigo Borgia, elected pope in 1402 under
the name of Alexander VI, had eight children. The eldest, Pedro Luis,
had acquired in 1485 the hereditary Duchy of Gandia in the Kingdom of
Valencia, which, at his death, passed to his brother Juan, who had
married Maria Enriquez de Luna. Having been left a widow by the murder
of her husband, Maria Enriquez withdrew to her duchy and devoted
herself piously to the education of her two children, Juan and Isabel.
After the marriage of her son in 1509, she followed the example of her
daughter, who had entered the convent of Poor Clares in Gandia, and it
was through these two women that sanctity entered the Borgia family,
and in the House of Gandia was begun the work of reparation which
Francis Borgia was to crown. Great-grandson of Alexander VI, on the
paternal side, he was, on his mother's side, the great-grandson of the
Catholic King Ferdinand of Aragon. This monarch had procured the
appointment of his natural son, Alfonso, to the Archbishopric of
Saragossa at the age of nine years. By Anna de Gurrea, Alfonso had two
sons, who succeeded him in his archiepiscopal see, and two daughters,
one of whom, Juana, married Duke Juan of Gandia and became the mother
of our saint. By this marriage Juan had three sons and four daughters.
By a second, contracted in 1523, he had five sons and five daughters.
The eldest of all and heir to the dukedom was Francis. Piously reared
in a court which felt the influence of the two Poor Clares, the mother
and sister of the reigning duke, Francis lost his own mother when he
was but ten. In 1521, a sedition amongst the populace imperilled the
child's life, and the position of the nobility. When the disturbance
was suppressed, Francis was sent to Saragossa to continue his education
at the court of his uncle, the archbishop, an ostentatious prelate who
had never been consecrated nor even ordained priest. Although in this
court the Spanish faith retained its fervour, it lapsed nevertheless
into the inconsistencies permitted by the times, and Francis could not
disguise from himself the relation in which his grandmother stood to
the dead archbishop, although he was much indebted to her for his early
religious training. While at Saragossa Francis cultivated his mind and
attracted the attention of his relatives by his fervour. They being
desirous of assuring the fortune of the heir of Gandia, sent him at the
age of twelve to Tordesillas as page to the Infanta Catarina, the
youngest child and companion in solitude of the unfortunate queen,
Juana the Mad.
In 1525 the Infanta married King Juan III of Portugal, and Francis
returned to Saragossa to complete his education. At last, in 1528, the
court of Charles V was opened to him, and the most brilliant future
awaited him. On the way to Valladolid, while passing, brilliantly
escorted, through Alcalá de Henares, 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. The emperor and empress welcomed Borgia less as a
subject than as a kinsman. He was seventeen, endowed with every charm,
accompanied by a magnificent train of followers, and, after the
emperor, his presence was the most gallant and knightly at court. In
1529, at the desire of the empress, Charles V gave him in marriage the
hand of Eleanor de Castro, at the same time making him Marquess of
Lombay, master of the hounds, and equerry to the empress, and
appointing Eleanor Camarera Mayor. The newly-created Marquess of Lombay
enjoyed a privileged station. Whenever the emperor was travelling or
conducting a campaign, he confided to the young equerry the care of the
empress, and on his return to Spain treated him as a confidant and
friend. In 1535, Charles V led the expedition against Tunis
unaccompanied by Borgia, but in the following year the favourite
followed his sovereign on the unfortunate campaign in Provence. Besides
the virtues which made him the model of the court and the personal
attractions which made him its ornament, the Marquess of Lombay
possessed a cultivated musical taste. He delighted above all in
ecclesiastical compositions, and these display a remarkable
contrapuntal style and bear witness to the skill of the composer,
justifying indeed the assertion that, in the sixteenth century and
prior to Palestrina, Borgia was one of the chief restorers of sacred
music.
In 1538, at Toledo, an eighth child was born to the Marquess of Lombay,
and on 1 May of the next year the Empress Isabella died. The equerry
was commissioned to convey her remains to Granada, where they were
interred on 17 May. The death of the empress caused the first break in
the brilliant career of the Marquess and Marchioness of Lombay. It
detached them from the court and taught the nobleman the vanity of life
and of its grandeurs. Blessed John of Avila preached the funeral
sermon, and Francis, having made known to him his desire of reforming
his life, returned to Toledo resolved to become a perfect Christian. On
26 June, 1539, Charles V named Borgia Viceroy of Catalonia, and the
importance of the charge tested the sterling qualities of the courtier.
Precise instructions determined his course of action. He was to reform
the administration of justice, put the finances in order, fortify the
city of Barcelona, and repress outlawry. On his arrival at the
viceregal city, on 23 August, he at once proceeded, with an energy
which no opposition could daunt, to build the ramparts, rid the country
of the brigands who terrorized it, reform the monasteries, and develop
learning. During his vice-regency he showed himself an inflexible
justiciary, and above all an exemplary Christian. But a series of
grievous trials were destined to develop in him the work of
sanctification begun at Granada. In 1543 he became, by the death of his
father, Duke of Gandia, and was named by the emperor master of the
household of Prince Philip of Spain, who was betrothed to the Princess
of Portugal. This appointment seemed to indicate Francis as the chief
minister of the future reign, but by God's permission the sovereigns of
Portugal opposed the appointment. Francis then retired to his Duchy of
Gandia, and for three years awaited the termination of the displeasure
which barred him from court. He profited by this leisure to reorganize
his duchy, to found a university in which he himself took the degree of
Doctor of Theology, and to attain to a still higher degree of virtue.
In 1546 his wife died. The duke had invited the Jesuits to Gandia and
become their protector and disciple, and even at that time their model.
But he desired still more, and on 1 February, 1548, became one of them
by the pronunciation of the solemn vows of religion, although
authorized by the pope to remain in the world, until he should have
fulfilled his obligations towards his children and his estates—his
obligations as father and as ruler.
On 31 August, 1550, the Duke of Gandia left his estates to see them no
more. On 23 October he arrived at Rome, threw himself at the feet of
St. Ignatius, and edified by his rare humility those especially who
recalled the ancient power of the Borgias. Quick to conceive great
projects, he even then urged St. Ignatius to found the Roman College.
On 4 February, 1551, he left Rome, without making known his intention
of departure. On 4 April, he reached Azpeitia in Guipuzcoa, and chose
as his abode the hermitage of Santa Magdalena near Oñate.
Charles V having permitted him to relinquish his possessions, he
abdicated in favour of his eldest son, was ordained priest 25 May, and
at once began to deliver a series of sermons in Guipuzcoa which revived
the faith of the country. Nothing was talked of throughout Spain but
this change of life, and Oñate became the object of incessant
pilgrimage. The neophyte was obliged to tear himself from prayer in
order to preach in the cities which called him, and which his burning
words, his example, and even his mere appearance, stirred profoundly.
In 1553 he was invited to visit Portugal. The court received him as a
messenger from God and vowed to him, thenceforth, a veneration which it
has always preserved. On his return from this journey, Francis learned
that, at the request of the emperor, Pope Julius III was willing to
bestow on him the cardinalate. St. Ignatius prevailed upon the pope to
reconsider this decision, but two years later the project was renewed
and Borgia anxiously inquired whether he might in conscience oppose the
desire of the pope. St. Ignatius again relieved his embarrassment by
requesting him to pronounce the solemn vows of profession, by which he
engaged not to accept any dignities save at the formal command of the
pope. Thenceforth the saint was reassured. Pius IV and Pius V loved him
too well to impose upon him a dignity which would have caused him
distress. Gregory XIII, it is true, appeared resolved, in 1572, to
overcome his reluctance, but on this occasion death saved him from the
elevation he had so long feared.
On 10 June, 1554, St. Ignatius named Francis Borgia commissary-general
of the Society in Spain. Two years later he confided to him the care of
the missions of the East and West Indies, that is to say of all the
missions of the Society. To do this was to entrust to a recruit the
future of his order in the peninsula, but in this choice the founder
displayed his rare knowledge of men, for within seven years Francis was
to transform the provinces confided to him. He found them poor in
subjects, containing but few houses, and those scarcely known. He left
them strengthened by his influence and rich in disciples drawn from the
highest grades of society. These latter, whom his example had done so
much to attract, were assembled chiefly in his novitiate at Simancas,
and were sufficient for numerous foundations. Everything aided Borgia —
his name, his sanctity, his eager power of initiative, and his
influence with the Princess Juana, who governed Castile in the absence
of her brother Philip. On 22 April, 1555, Queen Juana the Mad died at
Tordesillas, attended by Borgia. To the saint's presence has been
ascribed the serenity enjoyed by the queen in her last moments. The
veneration which he inspired was thereby increased, and furthermore his
extreme austerity, the care which he lavished on the poor in the
hospitals, the marvellous graces with which God surrounded his
apostolate contributed to augment a renown by which he profited to
further God's work. In 1565 and 1566 he founded the missions of
Florida, New Spain, and Peru, thus extending even to the New World the
effects of his insatiable zeal.
In December, 1556, and three other times, Charles V shut himself up at
Yuste. He at once summoned thither his old favourite, whose example had
done so much to inspire him with the desire to abdicate. In the
following month of August, he sent him to Lisbon to deal with various
questions concerning the succession of Juan III. When the emperor died,
21 September, 1558, Borgia was unable to be present at his bedside, but
he was one of the testamentary executors appointed by the monarch, and
it was he who, at the solemn services at Valladolid, pronounced the
eulogy of the deceased sovereign. A trial was to close this period of
success. In 1559 Philip II returned to reign in Spain. Prejudiced for
various reasons (and his prejudice was fomented by many who were
envious of Borgia, some of whose interpolated works had been recently
condemned by the Inquisition), Philip seemed to have forgotten his old
friendship for the Marquess of Lombay, and he manifested towards him a
displeasure which increased when he learned that the saint had gone to
Lisbon. Indifferent to this storm, Francis continued for two years in
Portugal his preaching and his foundations, and then, at the request of
Pope Pius IV, went to Rome in 1561. But storms have their providential
mission. It may be questioned whether but for the disgrace of 1543 the
Duke of Gandia would have become a religious, and whether, but for the
trial which took him away from Spain, he would have accomplished the
work which awaited him in Italy. At Rome it was not long before he won
the veneration of the public. Cardinals Otho Truchsess, Archbishop of
Augsburg, Stanislaus Hosius, and Alexander Farnese evinced towards him
a sincere friendship. Two men above all rejoiced at his coming. They
were Michael Chisleri, the future Pope Pius V, and Charles Borromeo,
whom Borgia'a example aided to become a saint.
On 16 February, 1564, Francis Borgia was named assistant general in
Spain and Portugal, and on 20 January, 1565, was elected vicar-general
of the Society of Jesus. He was elected general 2 July, 1565, by
thirty-one votes out of thirty-nine, to succeed Father James Laynez.
Although much weakened by his austerities, worn by attacks of gout and
an affection of the stomach, the new general still possessed much
strength, which, added to his abundant store of initiative, his daring
in the conception and execution of vast designs, and the influence
which he exercised over the Christian princes and at Rome, made him for
the Society at once the exemplary model and the providential head. In
Spain he had had other cares in addition to those of government.
Henceforth he was to be only the general. The preacher was silent. The
director of souls ceased to exercise his activity, except through his
correspondence, which, it is true, was immense and which carried
throughout the entire world light and strength to kings, bishops and
apostles, to nearly all who in his day served the Catholic cause. His
chief anxiety being to strengthen and develop his order, he sent
visitors to all the provinces of Europe, to Brazil, India, and Japan.
The instructions, with which he furnished them were models of prudence,
kindness, and breadth of mind. For the missionaries as well as for the
fathers delegated by the pope to the Diet of Augsburg, for the
confessors of princes and the professors of colleges he mapped out wide
and secure paths. While too much a man of duty to permit relaxation or
abuse, he attracted chiefly by his kindness, and won souls to good by
his example. The edition of the rules, at which he laboured
incessantly, was completed in 1567. He published them at Rome,
dispatched them (throughout the Society), and strongly urged their
observance. The text of those now in force was edited after his death,
in 1580, but it differs little from that issued by Borgia, to whom the
Society owes the chief edition of its rules as well as that of the
Spiritual, of which he had borne the expense in 1548. In order to
ensure the spiritual and intellectual formation of the young religious
and the apostolic character of the whole order, it became necessary to
take other measures. 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.
He completed at Rome the house and church of S. Andrea in Quirinale, in
1567. Illustrious novices flocked thither, among them Stanislaus Kostka
(d. 1568), and the future martyr Rudolph Acquaviva. Since his first
journey to Rome, Borgia had been preoccupied with the idea of founding
a Roman college, and while in Spain had generously supported the
project. In 1567, he built the church of the college, assured it even
then an income of six thousand ducats, and at the same time drew up the
rule of studies, which, in 1583, inspired the compilers of the Ratio
Studiorum of the Society. Being a man of prayer as well as of action,
the saintly general, despite overwhelming occupations, did not permit
his soul to be distracted from continual contemplation. Strengthened by
so vigilant and holy an administration the Society could not but
develop. Spain and Portugal numbered many foundations; in Italy Borgia
created the Roman province, and founded several colleges in Piedmont.
France and the Northern province, however, were the chief field of his
triumphs. His relations with the Cardinal de Lorraine and his influence
with the French Court made it possible for him to put an end to
numerous misunderstandings, to secure the revocation of several hostile
edicts, and to found eight colleges in France. In Flanders and Bohemia,
in the Tyrol and in Germany, he maintained and multiplied important
foundations. The province of Poland was entirely his work. At Rome
everything was transformed under his hands. He had built S. Andrea and
the church of the Roman college. He assisted agenerously in the
building of the Gesù, and although the official founder of that
church was Cardinal Farnese, and the Roman College has taken the name
of one of its greatest benefactors, Gregory XIII, Borgia contributed
more than anyone towards these foundations. During the seven years of
his government, Borgia had introduced so many reforms into his order as
to deserve to be called its second founder. Three saints of this epoch
laboured incessantly to further the renaissance of Catholicism. They
were St. Francis Borgia, St. Pius V, and St. Charles Borromeo.
The pontificate of Pius V and the generalship of Borgia began within an
interval of a few months and ended at almost the same time. The saintly
pope had entire confidence in the saintly general, who conformed with
intelligent devotion to every desire of the pontiff. It was he who
inspired the pope with the idea of demanding from the Universities of
Perugia and Bologna, and eventually from all the Catholic universities,
a profession of the Catholic faith. It was also he who, in 1568,
desired the pope to appoint a commission of cardinals charged with
promoting the conversion of infidels and heretics, which was the germ
of the Congregation for the Propogation of the Faith, established later
by Gregory XV in 1622. A pestilential fever invaded Rome in 1566, and
Borgia organized methods of relief, established ambulances, and
distributed forty of his religious to such purpose that the same fever
having broken out two years later it was to Borgia that the pope at
once confided the task of safeguarding the city.
Francis Borgia had always greatly loved the foreign missions. He
reformed those of India and the Far East and created those of America.
Within a few years, he had the glory of numbering among his sons
sixty-six martyrs, the most illustrious of whom were the fifty-three
missionaries of Brazil who with their superior, Ignacio Azevedo, were
massacred by Huguenot corsairs. It remained for Francis to terminate
his beautiful life with a splendid act of obedience to the pope and
devotion to the Church.
On 7 June, 1571, Pius V requested him to accompany his nephew, Cardinal
Bonelli, on an embassy to Spain and Portugal. Francis was then
recovering from a severe illness; it was feared that he had not the
strength to bear fatigue, and he himself felt that such a journey would
cost him his life, but he gave it generously. Spain welcomed him with
transports. The old distrust of Philip II was forgotten. Barcelona and
Valencia hastened to meet their former viceroy and saintly duke. The
crowds in the streets cried: "Where is the saint?" They found him
emaciated by penance. Wherever he went, he reconciled differences and
soothed discord. At Madrid, Philip II received him with open arms, the
Inquisition approved and recommended his genuine works. The reparation
was complete, and it seemed as though God wished by this journey to
give Spain to understand for the last time this living sermon, the
sight of a saint. Gandia ardently desired to behold its holy duke, but
he would never consent to return thither. The embassy to Lisbon was no
less consoling to Borgia. Among other happy results he prevailed upon
the king, Don Sebastian, to ask in marriage the hand of Marguerite of
Valois, the sister of Charles IX. This was the desire of St. Pius V,
but this project, being formulated too late, was frustrated by the
Queen of Navarre, who had meanwhile secured the hand of Marguerite for
her son. An order from the pope expressed his wish that the embassy
should also reach the French court. The winter promised to be severe
and was destined to prove fatal to Borgia. Still more grievous to him
was to be the spectacle of the devastation which heresy had caused in
that country, and which struck sorrow to the heart of the saint. At
Blois, Charles IX and Catherine de' Medici accorded Borgia the
reception due to a Spanish grandee, but to the cardinal legate as well
as to him they gave only fair words in which there was little
sincerity. On 25 February they left Blois. By the time they reached
Lyons, Borgia's lungs were already affected. Under these conditions the
passage of Mt. Cenis over snow-covered roads was extremely painful. By
exerting all his strength the invalid reached Turin. On the way the
people came out of the villages crying: "We wish to see the saint".
Advised of his cousin's condition, Alfonso of Este, Duke of Ferrara,
sent to Alexandria and had him brought to his ducal city, where he
remained from 19 April until 3 September. His recovery was despaired of
and it was said that he would not survive the autumn. Wishing to die
either at Loretto or at Rome, he departed in a litter on 3 September,
spent eight days at Loretto, and then, despite the sufferings caused by
the slightest jolt, 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 the "Porta del Popolo" on 28 September. The
dying man halted his litter and thanked God that he had been able to
accomplish this act of obedience. He was borne to his cell which was
soon invaded by cardinals and prelates. For two days Francis Borgia,
fully conscious, awaited death, receiving those who visited him and
blessing through his younger brother, Thomas Borgia, all his children
and grandchildren. Shortly after midnight on 30 September, his
beautiful life came to a peaceful and painless close. 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.
In 1607 the Duke of Lerma, minister of Philip III and grandson of the
holy religious, having seen his granddaughter miraculously cured
through the intercession of Francis, caused the process for his
canonization to be begun. The ordinary process, begun at once in
several cities, was followed, in 1637, by the Apostolic process. In
1617 Madrid received the remains of the saint. In 1624 the Congregation
of Rites announced that his beatification and canonization might be
proceeded with. The beatification was celebrated at Madrid with
incomparable splendour. Urban VIII having decreed, in 1631, that a
Blessed might not be canonized without a new procedure, a new process
was begun. It was reserved for Clement X to sign the Bull of
canonization of St. Francis Borgia, on 20 June, 1670. Spared from the
decree of Joseph Bonaparte who, in 1809, ordered the confiscation of
all shrines and precious objects, the silver shrine containing the
remains of the saint, after various vicissitudes, was removed, in 1901,
to the church of the Society at Madrid, where it is honoured at the
present time.
It is with good reason that Spain and the Church venerate in St.
Francis Borgia a great man and a great saint. The highest nobles of
Spain are proud of their descent from, or their connexion with him. By
his penitent and apostolic life he repaired the sins of his family and
rendered glorious a name, which but for him, would have remained a
source of humiliation for the Church. His feast is celebrated 10
October.
|
Mary
the Mother of Jesus Mary
Mother of GOD
Saints of this Day October 10 Sexto Idus
Octóbris 
Quote: Pope
Paul
VI’s 1969 
Among the most important titles we have in
the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory
and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of
the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our
Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for
the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope
Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City
praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing
the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in
using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require
spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had
its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.