Saint John of God, Religious

John Ciudad was born in Portugal in 1495 and, as a boy, went to Spain, where he was a shepherd, a soldier and a seller of books. In Granada, about 1537, a sermon by John of Avila moved him so deeply that he ran through the streets crying out for mercy, and was locked up in the asylum as a madman. There he saw how the mentally ill were beaten and neglected.

On his release he rented a house and took in the sick and the homeless, carrying them there himself and begging for them through the city. His helpers became the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. He died in Granada on 8 March 1550, his birthday, after trying to save a young man from drowning. He is the patron of hospitals, the sick and nurses.