DIEGO de BORBA. — Born in the city of Borba (Évora, Portugal). For a time he belonged to the Franciscans. In the year 1538 he went with the Franciscan bishop João de Albuquerque to Goa, where he began, through interpreters, to preach the faith to the pagans in the neighboring lands, and he understood the usefulness and necessity of Indian priests.
Thus, in 1541, as its principal founder, he established the college of St. Paul in Goa, entrusted to the Franciscans, in which boys from all over the East were to be admitted, from East Africa as far as the Moluccas, with the exception of the Portuguese. In 1542 St. Francis Xavier came to Goa, who, after some hesitation, accepted the college, which in time became the principal seat of the Society of Jesus in the East. B., a great friend of Xavier and of St. Ignatius, also wished to become a member of the Order, but this was hindered by his prior membership in the Franciscans. He died on 26 January 1547 in Goa, worn out by old age and mourned as a “pillar of the good.”