RELATION OF THE MIRACLES THAT God our Lord has worked by an image of the glorious Father San Francisco de Borja in the new kingdom of Granada, taken from the original processes of the information and approval of them made by the very illustrious Lord Don Julian de Cortazar, Archbishop of Santa Fe, by Father Manuel de Vargas of the Society of Jesus.

Place:Reino de Granada
Year: Not specified
Event: Milagro, Miracle

To the very excellent lord Don Francisco de Borja prince of Esquilache, gentleman of the chamber of his Majesty and company, very worthy grandson of the glorious Father and Holy confessor.

I give to your excellency what I received from his hand, with which heaven honors him, I present to him the miracles of his most excellent grandfather San Francisco de Borja flower of Saints and honor of princes. I do not put anything of my house, that of your excellency is so liberal that even in this he does not allow you to serve him with what is not his, a condition so much of God, that the payment of his mercies he puts it in that you receive his benefits. I do not say that your excellency is so, for they are not so short praises that they need to be great to be lengthened to lies, but it does not at least show that he is closer to the supreme who resembles him more. In this paper are, sir, the juridical information of the miracles of our great father and grandfather of your excellency (that your excellency gave us) converted into a simple narration, that what they lack of juridical, they will have of authorized and certain with the name and patronage of your excellency. Whose person and house may heaven prosper with the increases that your most excellent merits demand.

Chaplain of your Excellency.

Manuel de Vargas.

He carved a chapel Sebastián de Mujica Buitrón, in the rooms that he has in [Chitagoto] term of the city of Tunja, in the new kingdom of Granada, but whose adornment God brought him to the hands among other paintings, a brush image of the glorious Holy Father Francisco de Borja, that a religious of our Company had had painted by the singular devotion that he had to the saint who, taking it from one place to another, lost it and it remained in a miraculous commitment, because God to such lost treasures, many times with making them miracles, has been little revered. This canvas was found by an Indian, who sold it to Sebastian de Mujica, his singular devotee and a man no less principal than pious, who placed it in a curious frame in his chapel, as if it were a precious item of such esteem. By this holy image worked god our lord the miracles that Mr. Don Julian de Cortazar, archbishop of Santa Fe did find out, collect and prove legally, as evidenced by the original processes that lived at the hands of the very excellent Lord Don Francisco de Borja, prince of Esquilache, of which yes (so that the world has news of how much his holy grandfather can with God and intercedes for men) I have seemed to draw a bit of the said miracles, I am content to say that all or most of them were proved by 14 witnesses, of whom the least was over 23 years old and almost all the rest were over 30, as is evident from the papers attached, for whose certainty it is enough to say that they are in the possession of the said most excellent gentleman.

It happened then that on May 6, 1627, the day of St. John before Portam Latinam, Sebastian de Mujica was to celebrate a feast to the said Holy Evangelist that he had voted to obtain from God through his intercession, that he would free the fields from locusts, from which they usually suffer much and cause bad harvests in that land; and so that the feast would have the solemnity that his devotion and the edification of others required, he sent three of his young sons and a steward to clean and cleanse the altar so that it would not only be decent for the divine mysteries, but also magnificent to declare the devotion and solemnity of that day. The aforementioned went to fulfill their obedience and while they were arranging and arranging the ornament of their altar, Don Luis de Mujica, younger son of the said Sebastian, noticed that the image of the most glorious Father San Francisco de Borja was sweating as one who is in agony with such abundance that the sweat was running from his temples and forehead. Startled by the novelty and astonished by the divine prodigy (as many of them cause this holy horror), the child went out of the chapel shouting and published what he had seen. His father, who was rightly in the courtyard of those rooms, wounded by a holy fear and moved by a filial reverence, went immediately to examine the truth and that his eyes experienced what was causing such extraordinary effects in his ears. On the way he found his other two sons with the same astonishment and effects as the first, so he accelerated his pace, eager to witness such a rare event. He entered the church and as he was prudent he did not allow the prodigy to overcome the agreement nor the novelty to detention and so with attention and curiosity he came lighting lights to make with space examination of that truth, knowing that he who examines them with care can publish them with boldness and he saw how the temples, forehead and cheeks, hands and all the rest of the vestment, were covered with tiny drops of water, He particularly noticed that above the nostrils there was a drop running from the forehead, larger than the others, another drop similar to this one, from the right eye of a crucifix, which the Saint has painted on his hand, that looked more like a tear than a drop of sweat and it would not be much if it were, since it is not very new for Jesus to feel and cry the anxieties of his friends. He also noticed that from the left hand, next to the nail, four drops, notable for their greatness, were flowing one after the other. At the same time, he saw that a much larger drop than the others was running down the Saint’s chest to the right side, which he stretched out with his fingers, wiped off, and wiped his eyes with it, but no sooner had he wiped it off, when from the same part, without stopping, another drop, much larger than the last one, gushed out again. Having learned of the truth with such a superior prodigy, he tried more to give it witnesses than to find out, more to make it famous than true, and so he ordered candles and wax axes to be lit and the bell to be rung, so that the neighbors and inhabitants of that field would come without anyone being disappointed by the sight and enjoyment of such a singular prodigy. He justly sent two of his stewards, who went to give notice and make present to Father Fray Pedro de Zavaleta, preacher of the order of the Seraphic Father San Francisco and priest of the town of Sativa and of that chapel. The said Father came in haste with eagerness to see such a great miracle and having prayed with great devotion and reverence, he wiped and wiped with a clean linen the drops of sweat that the whole image, fearing that they were not of the water with which the church had been watered because whoever finds out, should fear anything that may have opposition with the truth, although ugly of so little foundation with this, since it is certain that being the front and altar wiry it was very difficult that the picture was watered, being so much more distant than them, but the event removed all suspicion and gave more certainty to the truth, because hardly had wiped the sweat when the canvas, as if it were a living man and worked in some great agony, returned to sprout as much and wiping it a second time did not tire the wonder of proving that it was, For with the same alacrity as before, he returned a second time to cover himself with sweat, hands, face, vestment and the crucifix that he held in his hand, so that all present were astonished and as if beside themselves, seeing such an evident and clear miracle. The Father did not dare to wipe off the sweat a third time, so as not to appear to be denying his own experience, but he dressed himself and solemnly said his mass, and when he had finished it, he wiped off the picture a third time and left him wiry, locking his church, without entrusting it to anyone else but himself. On this occasion he said a mulatto of Sebastian de Mujica and others saw how the whole Saint was bathed in sweat and fearing that it was not some humidity of the wall, they pulled him out of it, locked the church and guarded it so that nothing new happened, and returning the next day they found him sweating in the same way and for 20 or 24 days the same thing happened to them, with similar experiences, without anyone in that whole district who did not participate of the news and sight of such a great and so dilated portent, which became much greater with several others that originated from it and two particular circumstances that it had. The first was that while Martín de Verganzo, corregidor of the natives of the district of [Duitama] was praying to the Saint, in his miraculous image and offering himself information about his miracles that he had made and sent to the archbishop of Santa Fé and begging him to be well served by his devotion and zeal, the painting of the Saint, as if he were a living man, opened and closed again the hand in which he had the crucifix, in the presence of the said and Father Fray Adriano de Ribera, religious of the seraphic family of the great patriarch; giving to understand that he received his good diligence. It was the second time that those present noticed in this reason how the portrait of the Saint changed different colors, appearing pale, in the manner of one who is frightened, or lit as one who has a misfortune, or finally darkening a shadow that is painted on one of the sides, all affections of one who suffers. Don Juan de Borja, governor of this kingdom, captain general and president of the Royal Audience, grandson of the Saint, seeing that all these prodigies denoted feeling and regret in his miraculous grandfather, said: “Pray God that the grandfather does not sweat what the grandson has to suffer”. And with this he prepared himself for whatever God wanted to do with him, and his fear did not deceive him, because in 20 days he died quickly, leaving orphan that kingdom where everyone esteemed him as a prince and loved him as a father, property that seems to have inherited this family from his saintly grandfather, founded on the peaceful condition and magnificent liberality of so many excellent governors that have been born from it, both properties so much of princes, as of those who are not the affected deity in a retreat, how much is to hear the pity of the helpless and satisfy grievances of the unarmed. But it is that he was already sweating, feeling the lawsuits and contradictions that at the same time his children were suffering in the possession that they took of the site where today they have founded the professed house in Madrid, in the small square that was formerly called of the blacksmiths to put his holy ashes in the due veneration and worship that they have today. But since the news of the Saints embraces the one and the other fatigues, there is no reason to believe that the feeling did not include them all, from where (if the divine judgments can be guessed) we can with pity believe that this sweat denoted between both affections.

Hardly was this saintly portrait miraculous, when everyone expected from it a remedy for their ills and mainly the most at home and thus Doña Sebastiana de Mujica Buitrón, daughter of the aforementioned Sebastián who was at great risk of her life from a headache that resulted in very serious pains, without medicine being able to find a remedy for long days, she invoked the sweat of the Saint and asked to apply the linens with which she had wiped the sweat of the portrait and hardly the father complied with the devotion of the daughter, when she felt miraculously relieved of her illness and reached health so briefly, that the first morning after that night, she got up from the bed in which she had long suffered, without feeling from then on the slightest relic of the past evil.

The devotion that with this miracle she received from [Saint Anne of Oquendo], the wife of one of Sebastian’s stewards, whose arms were tied up without being able to use them for anything and who was suffering from very serious headaches, persuaded her that the miraculous linen cloth would not lack the virtue of curing her, and so with all confidence she asked for the said cloth to be applied to her, and as soon as it was applied, she felt a great burning in her head, arms and body with a cold sweat, all effects that were so particular and so sudden that she admired their presence. Here Ana began to say that it seemed to her that her arms were made of cotton, all of which indicated the main one, and after a short time, she said that she was well and everyone saw it, because she moved her arms and exercised them in things of fatigue as if she had never had them with impediment, and as on this occasion she experienced such singular patronage from her devotee, having fallen afterwards into a deafness with which she was almost useless, she took refuge in her sacred and applying the same linen, she became perfectly healthy at once.

As the fame of these miracles grew, so did the desire of the needy for many more, so that as they grew, their ailments would diminish. Antonio de Orozco saw his eyes inflamed and full of stinging with danger of losing his sight, one night he asked Father Fray Pedro de Zavaleta to clean them with the aforementioned linen and after he was satisfied with his devotion, he said that they did not hurt and in the morning, he woke up with them clear and serene, without a trace of the past. The same thing happened punctually to Juan Gómez, steward of the said Sebastián.

Once the information of all that was said was done, it was sent to Mr. Julián de Cortázar, Archbishop of Santa Fe for his approval. And his most illustrious lordship, in order to proceed with mature counsel in everything, gathered together the prebendaries* of his church, the provisor and vicar general of that archbishopric, the provincial of our Society, the immediate superiors of Saint Dominic, Saint Francis, Saint Augustine and the Society of Jesus, and many learned men of the said religions. And all together after having looked at it with zeal for the truth and affection for religion, unanimously and in agreement they judged that the said holy image should be considered miraculous and the events referred to as supernatural and beyond human possibility. From here originated such great devotion in the people to the Holy Father that the archbishop, chapter, president and royal audience and the very florentísima city of Santa Fe with public vote and common acclamation of the people, chose him as patron of the said city, ordering that his day be kept as a holiday with the same solemnity as the others that the holy Roman church orders to be kept, and on the same day a general procession was made to honor the saint and to obtain through his intercession remedy for the damages that the city suffers from the earth tremors and barren harvests. The same was done by the city of Popayan and all that province, which wrote to our very Holy Father Urban VIII begging him to proceed with his canonization, that with so many prodigies and miracles we hope that it will be much shortened.

And if in such remote places he works such great prodigies, corresponding in the Faith of those who pray to him, which we hope he will do in Madrid, where his Sacred Body is in the professed house that the Society of Jesus has (in the small square that would be very glorious if it were called the square of San Francisco de Borja) where he has built a church that is also called San Francisco de Borja, because it is dedicated to the Saint. How do we think that God will honor the relics, when he illustrates a portrait so much? To the truth the not being The Saints many times miraculous, it is born of being us little faithful and not giving us much that we ask them little or nothing. Let us count then and ask that if they obtained such singular gifts by means of a portrait, undoubtedly it will come to us by means of their Holy body and let us be certain that if our faith goes before us, our petition will be the measure of the goods that such a Holy and miraculous Father can and wants to negotiate with God.

LICENSE

We, the Licentiate don Juan de Velasco y Acevedo, Vicar General of this town of Madrid and its districts and company. We give license for a sheet of paper to print the relation of the miracles that our Lord has done, through the intercession of the glorious Father San Francisco de Borja, in the new kingdom of Granada in the Indies, attested to us are approved and qualified the said miracles, by the lord archbishop of the said new kingdom, in Madrid on September 5, 1629.

Licentiate Velasco y Acevedo.

By his order

Ivan Perogila Notary.

With license of the ordinary, in Madrid by Andrés de Parra, year 1629.

To see the Spanish version, modernized and transcribed, click here.

To see the French translation, click here.