SAINT JOHN OF GOD

St. John of God

Feast day: March 8
Patron of Booksellers



Born at Montemoro Nuovo (diocese of Evora), Portugal, March 8, 1495;
Died in Granada, Spain, on March 8, 1550;
Canonized by Pope Alexander VIII in 1690;
Leo XIII in 1886 declared him to be "patron of all hospitals and sick," along with Camillus de Lellis.

The several versions of Saint John's story are hopelessly confused with regard to a sequence of events in his early life.

Juan Ciudad was born of pious, peasant stock. His parents died when he was young (either before or after his misadventures). He was "seduced from his home by a priest, who abandoned him on the road" (Tabor with no further explanation). For a while he was a shepherd. He also served the bailiff of the count of Oroprusa in Castile for some time. After travelling for a while, he entered military service in 1522 where, his biographers report, he was guilty of many grievous sexual excesses and other sins. He served in the wars between the French and the Spaniards, and in Hungary against the Turks. After the count's company broke up, John worked as a shepherd near Seville. He even worked as a superintendent of slaves in Morocco at some point.

When he was about 40, he was profoundly moved with remorse and decided to dedicate himself to God's service in some special way. He initially thought of going to Morocco in Africa to minister to and rescue Christian slaves. Instead he accompanied a Portuguese family from Gibraltar to Ceuta, Barbary. There he served a Portuguese nobleman, who had lost all his possessions. John maintained the whole family by his labor. Then he returned to Gibraltar, where he peddled religious pictures and books. He business prospered, and in 1538, in obedience to a vision, he opened a shop in Granada.

After hearing Blessed John of Ávila preach on Saint Sebastian's Day (January 20), he was so touched that he cried aloud and beat his breast, begging for mercy. He ran about the streets behaving like a lunatic, and the townspeople threw sticks and stones at him. He returned to his shop, gave away his stock, and began wandering the streets in distraction.

Some people took him to Blessed John of Ávila, who advised him and offered his support. John was calm for a while but fell into wild behavior again and was taken to an insane asylum, where the customary brutal treatments were applied to bring him to sanity. John of Ávila heard of his fate and visited him, telling him that he had practiced his penance long enough and that he should address himself to doing something more useful for himself and his neighbor. John was calmed by this, remained in the hospital, and attended the sick until 1539. While there he determined to spend the rest of his life working for the poor.

On his release from the hospital, he began selling wood to earn money to feed the poor. With the help of the archbishop of Granada, hired a house as a refuge to care for the sick poor-- including prostitutes and vagabonds, which brought him criticism. Although he was constantly short of money, his work prospered because he served them with great zeal and discrimination.

On one occasion his hospital caught fire and he carried out most of the patients on his own back, returning again and again through the flames to rescue them. He had a good business head and was so efficient in his administration that soon he found himself the recipient of aid from the whole city of Granada and beyond. He found so many willing to join in helping him, that he was forced to think of starting a religious order. This was the beginning of the Borthers of Saint John of God, a group which was to have enormous influence in the Church. He had not intended to found a religious order, and so the rules were not drawn up until six years after his death.

He gave relief also to the poor in their homes and found work for the unemployed. In his eagerness that no case of want should go unrelieved, he instituted an inquiry into the problems and needs of the poor of the whole area. In addition to his relief work, bearing in his hand a crucifix, he sought out the fallen women of the city to reclaim them. The archbishop once sent for him and complained that he harbored idle beggars and bad women, to which he replied that the only bad person in the hospital was himself.

John of God practiced great penance, enjoyed visions and even ecstasies, but manifested great humility through a life in which he wore himself out, trying to aid every distressed person he met or heard of, in addition to preaching with cross in hand to crowds throughout the city streets. He fell ill after trying to save his wood and to rescue a drowning child from the River Ximel during a flood. He hid his illness and continued in his duties, but the news finally got out.

He named Antony Martin superior over his helpers. John remained so long in front of the Blessed Sacrament that the Lady Anne Ossorio took him home with her by force. She surrounded him with every comfort, and read to him the story of the Passion of Jesus. He worried that while Jesus drank gall, he, a miserable sinner, was being fed good food.

Outside, the whole city gathered at the door--nobles and beggars alike--craving his blessing. The magistrates begged him to bless his fellow townsfolk, but he said that he was a sinner. The archbishop finally convinced him to confer his blessing. John died on his knees before the altar of his hospital chapel, and was buried by the archbishop