Our Patron - St John of God
Juan Ciudad, or Joao Cidade, was born in 1495 of Jewish origins. He grew up in Monteremor-O-Nova, Portugal, and later became a shepherd at Oropasa, near Toledo, Spain. Between 1523 and 1533, John served in the army of the King of Spain and during the following ten years, he worked in various places, including the Seville region of Spain, and Ceuta in North Africa.
Eventually, John came to Granada in 1538, where he initially earned his living selling books. A preacher at one of Granada's festivals was a priest known as St John of Avila. One day as he was speaking John of God had a sudden insight into the values of the Gospel and a realization of how different they were from those he had assumed up to that time. This profound religious experience led him to behave so radically that he was considered to be mad, and placed in hospital – a hospital for those suffering with mental illness. In these early days, little was known about mental illness.
John's time in hospital gave him a sense of purpose and direction. He did what he could to improve the conditions of his fellow patients. In May 1539, John
was discharged from the Royal Hospital of Granada. Between 1540 and the time of his death on 8 March 1550, John of God cared for the sick and needy people in Granada and established what has become 'the St John of God way of health care'. John of God was canonized a saint on 16 October 1690, and declared patron of the sick and hospitals in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. In 1930 Pope Pius XI named him Patron of Nurses.
