Saint John of God

João Cidade was born in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, on March 8, 1495. As a boy he left home and grew up in Spain, working as a shepherd, then as a soldier in the wars of Emperor Charles V, and later as a seller of religious books in Granada. In 1537 a sermon by Saint John of Avila shook him so deeply that he gave away his books and wandered the streets crying out for mercy. He was locked in the Royal Hospital as a madman, where he saw how cruelly the mentally ill were treated.

Guided by John of Avila, he opened a house in Granada and began begging for the sick, crying "Do good, brothers, for your own sake!" His care for every person who came gave rise to the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God. Exhausted after rescuing a youth from the river Genil, he died in Granada on his birthday, March 8, 1550. He was canonized in 1690.

In Granada his relics rest in the Basilica of San Juan de Dios, and the city honors him with Masses and visits to the sick. The Brothers Hospitaller run hospitals and mental health centers in more than fifty countries, including across Latin America, where his feast is a day of celebration for patients and staff.