Francisco de Borja

Who was Francisco de Borja?

Francisco de Borja y Navarro de Alpicat was a Spanish cardinal, and the seventh of ten cardinal-nephews created by Pope Alexander VI.

Borja was born in 1441 in Játiva, Spain and was a canon in the cathedral chapter of Valencia. After the election of Rodrigo Borja as Alexander VI by the papal conclave, 1492, Francisco went to Rome, becoming the protonotary apostolic, and then the treasurer general on September 20, 1493. He was elected bishop of Teano on August 19, 1495 and retained the see until June 5, 1508 when he resigned in favor of his nephew of the same name. There is no evidence he was ever consecrated. Alexander VI elevated Francisco as a cardinal priest on September 28, 1500 in pectore and published his cardinalate on October 2 adding the title of S. Cecilia on October 5.

He later accumulated a variety of additional benefices: first as Abbot commendatario of the monasteries of S. Vincenzo, Volturno, and of S. Stefano di Sermo, then the diocese of Terracina on August 19, 1495, and then the metropolitan see of Cosenza on November 6, 1499.