Balthazar of Loyola

Baldassare Diego Loyola (His baptismal name in Italian was Baldassare Diego Loyola.) Sources use many slightly different variants and spellings of his name, including Baldassare de Loyola Mandes, Baldassarre de Loyola Méndes,

Between 1664 and 1667, he preached to captives in the port cities of Genoa and Naples and he reportedly managed to convert almost 800 Muslims to Christianity. On one occasion in Naples, he desecrated the Quran by stamping on the book and tearing out its pages in front of a crowd of Muslims. During this time in Italy, he was in touch with various leading religious and political figures, including Cardinals Antonio Barberini and Benedetto Odescalchi and members of the Savoy, Medici and Doria families. While in Turin in August 1664, he met and befriended Domenico Ottomano, an alleged Ottoman prince who had also converted to Christianity after being captured by the Hospitallers.

Loyola is said to have desired to go to a Muslim territory where he could die as a martyr. Superior General Giovanni Paolo Oliva permitted him to become a missionary in the Mughal Empire in North India, and in 1667 he embarked on a journey to Lisbon, from where he intended to board a ship to India. While en route, he reunited with Demandolx in Arles but he fell ill while in Madrid and he was unable to complete his journey. He died at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid on 15 September 1667. The Queen of Spain, Mariana of Austria, visited him before his death and his funeral was held at Colegio Imperial. Loyola came to be a symbol of the Counter-Reformation and several plays, poems and other literary works were written about his life, including the sacred drama El Gran Principe de Fez Don Balthasar de Loyola (1668) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. and the drama was performed in Jesuit colleges.

Lakmahri also stated that "in terms of propaganda, Christian notables can not imagine a better story. A Muslim prince, pious and wise, chose to join the cause of Jesus Christ. The history of this incredible conversion abounds in Western literature. Writings of historians, clerics and even plays, all types have taken over the Balthazar story. The goal is to make the Moroccan a significant religious figure of his time. A proof of the basis of the struggle of Christians against infidel "Mohammedans". If even the highest Muslim leaders embrace the Christian faith, his superiority while longer is out of doubt".