Manuscript Borg.tonch.4, “Truyện ông thánh Phanchicô de Borja” (The Life of St Francis Borgia), is a life of St Francis Borgia, third Superior General of the Society of Jesus, composed by Father Philiphê do Rosario Nguyễn Văn Bỉnh, CO. It is written throughout in Vietnamese in chữ Quốc ngữ and was completed in 1820 in Lisbon, Portugal. It proceeds chronologically, from the Borja family's origins to the saint's death and the miracles he worked for the faithful thereafter. It runs to 633 pages in 50 sections. It opens with the noble lineage of the house of Borja, the prophecy that Francis would be born a man of virtue, his marriage and many children, his succession to his father first as Marquess of Lombay and then as Duke of Gandía, and his service to the king of Catalonia at court. The book relates the celebrated episode in which the sight of Empress Isabella's body in its coffin changed him utterly, so that he wished to renounce his wealth for religious life yet had first to take up his father's duties in the king's service. Having provided for his children, he laid down the dukedom, entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained. The book goes on to the good works and miracles he performed after ordination, and his humility in refusing to be regarded as the duke he had been. On the death of Superior General Diego Laínez he was elected to succeed him, and the book recounts what he accomplished for the Church in that office. It closes with his death in 1572, the miracles he worked for the faithful of many nations, and the great virtues he left for them to imitate. This manuscript offers scholars of Vietnamese studies further material on middle-period Vietnamese through the life of the Jesuit St Francis Borgia.
The original is held by the Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). The images are copyright the Library and are loaded directly from the Vatican Digital Library (DigiVatLib); Digitizing Việt Nam presents this manuscript by permission of the Vatican Digital Library.