In Granada, John of God heard John of Àvila. Impressed, he decided to express genuine repentance for his sins. He roamed the streets proclaiming his sins with continuous self-flagellation. He’s crazy, was the verdict, so he was sent to an asylum where he gladly submitted his body to daily scourging, the treatment for people with mental disorders.
Mystical encounters
The Catholic Encyclopedia lists mystical experiences in the life of Saint John of God. Saint Raphael, it was noted, often appears when John’s work was too heavy.
While selling religious literature, he saw a child on the roadside in tattered clothes and barefooted, who requested that John carry him in his wheelbarrow. He lifted the child and placed him on his shoulder. He noticed that his load became so heavy. So tired, he drank on a fountain along the road and proposed to the child that they stop and rest. Coming down from his shoulder, the child was transformed into a bright light and said: “John of God, Granada shall be your cross” and disappeared.
Stumbling on a beggar apparently dying, on a deserted street, he carried him on his shoulders to the hospital. While John was cleaning the gaping wounds on his feet, he saw the beggar transfigured, shining and the brightness enveloped John himself. He had difficulty assuring the sick in the room, who thought there was fire, that everything was well.
In later years, while praying before a crucifix, he saw Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother and Saint John. The Blessed Mother stepped forward with a crown of thorns, pressed it hard on his head and said, “It is by the thorns and sufferings that you must win the crown of my Son waiting for you in heaven.” John felt the thorns piercing his brain.
Life of a waif
Saint John of God was born João Duarte Cidade on March 8, 1495, in Montemor-O-Nova in Evora, Portugal. He was raised in a happy and loving family. But at the age of 8, he disappeared, showed up in Castille, a place opposite his birthplace. An outcast roaming the streets of Oropesa, he was employed as a shepherd boy. When he reached manhood, his master offered him his daughter for marriage, F. M. Rudge said in Catholic Encyclopedia. Since marriage was not in his life plan, he left.
He joined the foot soldiers of Emperor Charles V against the French in Fontarabia, then in Hungary against the Turks. He became involved in “thefts, revelry and sin.” But however reckless his life was, he had a soft spot in his heart for the poor and needy.
On foot, he made a pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela, atoned for his sins and resolved to spend a life of reparation.
With the joy of forgiveness in his mind, he returned to Evora, the place of his youth, and learned that his mother died of loneliness because of him, and his father entered a Franciscan monastery where he died. At 42, he resolved to live a life of atonement. He heard so much talk about the sufferings of Christian slaves among the Moors.
In Gibraltar he met a Portuguese who was so destitute, that John went with him to settle in Cueta. He found work and spent his earnings helping others.
A priest who worked in the settlement persuaded John to return to Spain, and he did.
A fool for Christ
He attended church rites and was impressed with the sermons of Saint John of Àvila, a friend of Saint Teresa of Àvila.
On the feast of Saint Sebastian, John Àvila sermon on being a fool for Christ inspired him how to atone for his sins.
John left before the people poured out to the street. Crying for mercy, he beat himself, rolling in the mud, sitting on the pavement at the feet of people. Children followed him. Some of his neighbors who considered him queer were soon convinced he had fits of insanity. With their laughter, John played well his role as a fool for Christ, beating his chest and confessing his sins publicly.
Thinking he was a lunatic, a boy carrying a bucket of dirty water poured it on John. When the crowd burst into laughter, he joined them.On another time, John’s cloak accidentally brushed against a Spanish gentleman and it fell near his feet. He received a staggering blow and another when he picked up the cloak and handed it to the Spaniard.
John of Àvila, who sensed his remorse, counseled him. John of God opened a small store that sold religious objects. With the small profit, he rented a house and welcomed the poor. He cared for them, bathed and treated their ailments.
Because funds were not enough, he begs, shouting, “Do yourself a good turn, ladies and gentlemen, do yourselves a good turn.” Although people laughed, they dropped coins on his can.
Malcolm Day in A Treasury of Saints quoted Saint John of God’s description of his work in the saint’s journal: “So many poor people come here that I very often wonder how to care for them all…More than a hundred and 10 are now living here…Since this house is open to everyone, it receives the sick of every type and condition: the crippled, disabled, lepers, mutes, insane, paralytic, those suffering from scurvy and afflictions of old age, many children and, above all, countless pilgrims and travelers. I work here on borrowed money, a prisoner for the sake of Jesus Christ. And often my debts are so pressing that I dare not go out for the fear of being seized by my creditors. Whenever, I see so many brothers and neighbors of mine suffering beyond their strength and overwhelmed with so many ills I cannot alleviate, then I become exceedingly sorrowful, but I trust in Christ who knows my heart.”
Founder of Hospital Brothers
When people realized his generosity, the spirit of charity swept the townspeople and funds poured to help the patients.
Because John exchanges his cloak with that of any beggar he meets, Don Sebastian Ramirez, bishop of Tuy, made a habit for him which was later adapted as the religious garb of the Order of Hospitallers. He named him John of God.
Benefactors of the town built a hospital. Patients who were healed joined the hospital, and became the nucleus of the Order of Hospitallers, which was approved by the Holy See in 1572 as the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God.
After saving a drowning man, he had a terrible chill, became ill and died on March 8, 1550, his 55th birthday. Saint John of God is the precursor of the mind and spirit first before the body.
The patron of hospitals, nurses, booksellers and people who are mentally ill, he was beatified on September 21, 1630, by Pope Urban VIII and canonized on October 16, 1690, by Pope Alexander VIII.
***Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.