John of God
| St. John of God, O.H. | |
|---|---|
Saint John of God by Murillo (1672)
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| Born | João Duarte Cidade March 8, 1495 Montemor-o-Novo, Évora, Portugal |
| Died | March 8, 1550 (aged 55) Granada, Kingdom of Granada (modern Spain) |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | September 21, 1630, Rome, Papal States, by Pope Urban VIII |
| Canonized | October 16, 1690, Rome, Papal States, by Pope Alexander VIII |
| Major shrine | Basilica of St. John of God, Granada, Spain |
| Feast | March 8 |
| Attributes | alms; cord; crown of thorns; heart |
| Patronage | Booksellers, hospitals, nurses, the mentally ill and the dying |
John of God, O.H. (March 8, 1495 – March 8, 1550) (Spanish: Juan de Dios and Portuguese: João de Deus) was a Portuguese-born soldier turned health-care worker in Spain, whose followers later formed the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a worldwide Catholic religious institute dedicated to the care of the poor, sick, and those suffering from mental disorders. He has been canonized by the Catholic Church, and is considered one of Spain's leading religious figures.
The first biography of John of God was written by Francisco de Castro, the chaplain at John of God's hospital in Granada, Spain. He drew from his personal knowledge of John as a young man and also used material gathered from eyewitnesses and contemporaries of his subject. It was published at the express wish of the Archbishop of Granada, who gave financial backing to its publication. Castro began writing in 1579, twenty-nine years after John of God's death, but he did not live to see it published, for he died soon after completing the work. His mother, Catalina de Castro, had the book published in 1585.
Shortly after the publication of Castro's Historia, an Italian translation was published at Rome by an Oratorian priest, Giovanni Bordini, in 1587. Despite a number of mistranslations and his own extraneous comments, this work became the source of most translations into other languages.
John of God was born João Duarte Cidade (Portuguese form, the Spanish form is João Cidade Duarte) in Montemor-o-Novo, now in the District of Évora, Kingdom of Portugal, the son of André Cidade and Teresa Duarte, a once-prominent family that was impoverished but had great religious faith. One day, when John was eight years of age, he disappeared. Whether he had been deliberately kidnapped, or whether he had been seduced from his home by a cleric who had been given hospitality in the home, is not clear. According to his original biography, his mother died from grief soon after this and his father joined the Franciscan Order.
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