Saint John of God
8 March 1495 at Montemoro Novo, Evora, Portugal
†: 8 March 1550 at Granada, Spain while praying before a crucifix from a illness he had contracted while saving a drowning man, relics at Granada
Memorial: 8 March
Profile
Juan grew up working as a shepherd in the Castile region of Spain. He led a wild and misspent youth, and travelled over much of Europe and north Africa as a soldier in the army of Charles V, and as a mercenary. Fought through a brief period of insanity. Peddled religious books and pictures inGibraltar, though without any religious conviction himself. In his 40’s he received a vision of the Infant Jesus who called him John of God. To make up for the misery he had caused as a soldier, he left the military, rented a house in Granada, Spain, and began caring for the sick, poor, homeless and unwanted. He gave what he had, begged for those who couldn’t, carried those who could not move on their own, and converted both his patients and those who saw him work with them. Friend of SaintJohn of Avila, on whom he tried to model his life. John founded the Order of Charity and the Order of Hospitallers of Saint John of God.
Beatified
- 21 September 1630 by Pope Urban VIII
Canonized
- 16 October 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII
Patronage
- against alcoholism
- against bodily ills
- against sickness
- alcoholics
- bookbinders
- booksellers
- dying people
- firefighters
- heart patients
- hospitals (proclaimed on 22 June 1886 by Pope Leo XIII)
- hospital workers
- nurses (proclaimed in 1930 by Pope Pius XI)
- publishers
- printers
- sick people
- Tultepec, Mexico
Representation
- alms
- alms box around his neck
- cord
- crown of thorns
- heart
- rope
