From Duke of Gandia to a saint: the transformation of Saint Francis Borgia towards his biographies

Abstract

The life of Francis Borgia has aroused a special interest in the richness of facets, functions, positions and dignities that accumulated in the same. The evolution of the process of canonization, culminated in 1671, favored that his biographers sought and find without too much difficulty the aspects that they considered convenient to mean at any moment with a utilitarian objective. From the time of his death, on the figure of Borja were interwoven perspectives and interests, which were not always coincident, linked to internal issues of the Society of Jesus, to the relations between the Hispanic monarchs and the pontiffs, as well as to the own Family Borja and, specifically, the House of Gandía. The evolution of the features highlighted in their biographies allows to analyze the relationship between them.