John of God was born in Montemor-o-Novo, near Évora (Portugal), in 1495, also on March 8th. He disappeared from his home at the age of eight and was taken in at Oropesa (Toledo), where people started calling him John of God because they didn’t know his real surname. In Oropesa, he worked as a shepherd and farmer. At twenty-seven, he enlisted as a soldier and took part in the campaign of Charles V against Francis I and the defense of Vienna against Suleiman II. Later, he worked as a laborer in Africa and a traveling bookseller in Gibraltar until he opened a small bookstore in Granada.
During this time, his piety and charity toward the poorest were already evident. A sermon he heard from Saint John of Ávila was pivotal for his future life. The religious reaction John experienced made people think he was crazy. He realized the harsh conditions of the mentally ill in those times while in the asylum. With the help of benefactors, he founded a hospital in Granada. Despite not having medical knowledge, he demonstrated extraordinary talent in patient care, surpassing the methods of those times. John introduced the psychoanalytic treatment of patients and taught to heal the spirit first, as this is the basis for bodily health. He knew how to separate infectious patients from others, care for them according to their various illnesses, educate them religiously, and, above all, treat them with kindness and patience, especially the mentally ill.
Together with his collaborators, he founded what would become the Order of the Brothers Hospitallers, which soon spread to Italy, where they are known as the Fattebenefratelli. This name comes from John’s habit of shouting through the streets of Granada at night, asking for charity: «Do good, brothers, for yourselves!» which in Italian is «Fatte bene, fratelli, a voi stessi per amor di Dio!»
Sebastian Ramírez, Bishop of Tuy and President of the Royal Chamber of Granada, gave him a habit, later adding a scapular similar to the Benedictine, to distinguish them from those fraudulently asking for charity in the name of the Hospitallers. John died in Granada on March 8, 1550. He was canonized in 1690, and Leo XII named him the patron saint of hospitals, the sick, and all those who care for them.
