Fr. Scott-Vincent Borba was called to the priesthood at the age of then. But until about 12 years ago, he was on a very different path.
Borba is the co-founder of the cosmetics brand E.L.F., which he turned into a $3 billion empire. He sold his products to major retailers including Target and Walmart according to the New York Times.
“My family raised a family of hard workers,” he told Drew Mariani. “So, I was instilled at a very young age that I would be able to go ahead and achieve anything with God’s help [and] … hard work.”
All that hard work led Borba to the top of the food chain. His wealth and influence meant driving expensive cars and rubbing elbows with celebrities. However, at the height of his power, he was lonely. And during that time, his father died from pancreatic cancer. “It was a very hard time,” he told Drew.
The loneliness pushed him to continually look for pleasure. It was, however, elusive. “Even though we were able to walk into any place or to do whatever we wanted, it was not something that was giving me pleasure,” he told Drew.
Then, one night everything changed. During a party at his house, Borba felt empty and alone, and asked God, “Help me be the man you created me to be.” He then had a vision of St. Michael who showed him the state of his soul. “I saw myself not toward going toward hell, but actually being in hell,” he told Drew. “It was the scariest moment of my life.”
That moment initiated Borba’s conversion back to the faith. After the party, Borba called his realtor and asked for his home to be sold. For a while he lived with his sister and began a period of intense penance and discernment. “I was told that I had to give up meat for penance and for salvation of souls.”
When he was ready to enter seminary, he pulled up to his vocation director’s office in his luxury car. The priest told Borba, “Oh my goodness, we have so much work to do with you.”
While the initial transition into seminary was hard, he eventually grew to enjoy it. “I have never been happier in my life, despite everything that I had before. I would give it up one million times over to be in the space I am right now.”
Borba was ordained to the priesthood on May 23rd for the Diocese of Fresno.