The honour and glory of all courtiers in the Corte do Céu. the lineages of the Sun, of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francisco de Borja: Jesuit saintly nobility and sanctity as the symbolic capital of the nobility (16th-18th centuries)

Abstract

This article analyses the noble condition of the canonized saints of the Catholic Monarchy in the 17th century and how this holiness was capitalised by families, noble houses and lineages, in particular within the hagiographic accounts. In this narrative context, we include some of the hagiographies dedicated to two of the three first Jesuit saints, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francisco de Borja. Finally, we consider how the Loyola-Borja alliance was in practice combined with the founding of the marquis status of Santiago de Oropesa, granted by Felipe III in 1614 to Ana Maria de Loyola Coya, a descendant of the Inca rulers, and just how the symbolic features stemming from the double Inca and Jesuit origin of this noble house were articulated.