St. John of God

�t. John o� God BORN 1495; DIED 1550 sins and to seek RELIGIOUS a way to serve FEAST DAY: MARCH 8 God. His heart was touched by the HOSE WHOSE distress of Christian LIVES are a slaves in North Afri- Tc h r o n i c l e ca, so he decided to of sin and go there in hopes whose hearts of assisting them are far from and perhaps God may even attaining believe that martyrdom. At they are beyond Gibralter, Spain, hope, and that PAUL KERRIS however, he encoun- their lives will nev- tered a Portuguese fam- er be worthwhile. St. ily that was being forced to John of God was a man live in exile and, out of pity, who may have felt the went with them to North Afri- same way, but who demon- ca and began to serve them with- strates that God always wel- out asking for wages. Because of comes back the sinner and that the illness of the father of the family, every person is necessary to build he worked as a day laborer to provide up the Kingdom of Heaven. funds to help support them all. His con- John was born at Montemoro Novo east fessor, however, advised him that his quest for of Lisbon, Portugal, but nothing is known of martyrdom was not real and that he was to seek his early life or of his peasant parents, except salvation not in one glorious moment but in the that they were devout. At the age of nine, he day-to-day living out of a vocation of charity. left home to follow a Spanish priest to Orope- Returning to Gibralter, within a few years za near Toledo (in modern central Spain), who John opened a shop selling religious books and put John in the care of the village’s chief shep- articles. Following a vision, he moved north- herd. At this stage of his life, he faithfully sought east to Granada, Spain, doing the same thing. God and carefully carried out his duties. When One day, after hearing an especially powerful grown, he enlisted in the army of Spain to avoid sermon by Bl. John of Ávila, he experienced a marrying the chief shepherd’s daughter, serving full conversion of his heart to God. The imme- as a soldier in wars between Spain and France diate consequence of his conversion was public as well as in the defense of Vienna against an repentance — in the church, in the streets — attack by the Turks. His army experiences led which seemed so strange, as if he had lost his him to abandon the practice of his faith, and he wits, that he was locked up in an asylum for the fell into serious sin for many years. When the insane. The same preacher who had led him army was disbanded, he worked as a shepherd to repentance eventually advised him that, as he near Seville, Spain. had before, he was behaving impractically and By age forty, he had begun to repent of his should, instead, seek something more useful to The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. both himself and others in need. His behavior The remainder of John’s life was one of great returned to normal, and he began caring for his charity, not only at his own hospital but to ev- fellow patients in the hospital until he himself eryone in need whom he could reach. He did was discharged as “cured.” He made a pilgrim- not merely wait to hear about someone’s distress, age to a Marian shrine and only there, in a vi- however, but developed an organized system sion, ﬁnally learned that his true vocation was to inquire about the needs of others and found one of service. suitable ways to help them all. This included John began to sell wood so that he might have not only those who had need for food, shel- money to feed the poor. The brutal regimen of ter, care, protection, or employment, but those “treatment” that he who were living lives had experienced was “He did not wait for sick people steeped in sin, whom the inspiration for he sought to bring to him to found a hospi- to come to him but, instead, repentance. tal where he himself John’s life of char- could care for those went throughout Granada, ity was sustained by in need, which he did plucking them off the streets long hours of con- with great wisdom, templative prayer and zeal, and efficiency. and, if necessary, austerity in his own He did not wait for bearing them on way of living, and sick people to come to blessed by mystical him but, instead, went his own back.” ecstasies and visions. throughout Granada, His deep humility plucking them off the streets and, if necessary, was in no way affected by the honors heaped bearing them on his own back. He received the upon him by royalty. Thirteen years after he help of the saints of Heaven, especially the angel had begun his ministry, he died on his knees be- St. Raphael, in the early period when he worked fore the Blessed Sacrament. mostly alone, and on one occasion saved his pa- John found his vocation only in the middle tients from a ﬁre that he walked through un- of his life. Yet repentance of a dissolute life, fol- harmed. From an impractical man who aspired lowing the counsel of his confessors, and full but failed to attain extravagantly glorious mar- conversion of the heart were not enough. The tyrdom, John became renowned for his modes- missing ingredient was listening for God’s call ty, common sense, and prudence. Together with in prayer. Once he heard and responded to that two other men, he laid the foundation for what call, the glory he had sought in martyrdom he became, after his death, the religious order of instead found in caring for the most neglected the Brothers of St. John of God. members of the Body of Christ. St. John of God ~ Page 2.

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