(C.D. Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte, NC 2001). Used with permission.

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For booksellers

St. John of God (1495-1550)

Feast day: March 8

One of the jobs St. John of God held on his erratic path to sainthood was peddler of religious books. For this reason he is the patron saint of booksellers.

John was eight years old when a priest visiting his town, Montemoro-o-Novo, Portugal, coaxed him to leave home and go with him to Spain. We do not know the priest’s reasons for taking the boy away from his parents, but we do know that he did not keep John long. At the town of Oropeza in Spain he left the boy with the bailiff and vanished from John’s life. Back in Montemoro-o-Novo John’s distraught mother died, some said of grief, and his father joined the Franciscans.

The bailiff treated John like a member of the family. He sent him to school, put him to work watching the Count of Oropeza’s flocks, and eventually appointed John steward of the count’s estate. At age 22, when John was a strapping young man eager for excitement, King Charles V of Spain declared war against France. John enlisted in the army where he served for four years. He returned home to Oropeza in time to join the count’s troops and march off to a new war against the Turks in Hungary.

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After the war with the Turks John drifted. He was a shepherd for a wealthy widow in Spain. He thought he would go to North Africa to rescue Christian slaves and perhaps die a martyr. When he met a Portuguese woman whose husband had become an invalid John hired himself out to support the family. He must have liked being on the road because his next career was peddling religious books and holy pictures from town to town.

Once he met a little barefoot boy. John offered the child his shoes, but of course they were too big, so John lifted the boy and carried him on his shoulders. Soon he was sweating and near exhaustion. He put the boy down beside a stream and knelt to drink and wash his face. When he looked up from the water he saw the boy was the Child {ln:Jesus}. In his hand the Christ Child held an open pomegranate surmounted by a cross and inscribed with the words, “John of God, Granada will be your cross.” (The pomegranate is the emblem of the city of Granada and a symbol of charity and fruitfulness.) In obedience to his vision, John went to Granada. Since he had received no further instructions from the Christ Child he supported himself there by selling his books and sacred images. In January 1537 St. John of Avila, an impassioned preacher and mystic, came to Granada to give a mission. John of God joined the crowd in the church. In the middle of the preacher’s sermon John began to wail, crying to God to have mercy on him. He ran from the church and stumbled through the city streets beating his breast, tearing his hair, howling with grief. After many days of this the town authorities had John locked in an asylum for the insane. Whenever he had an outburst the keepers of the asylum flogged John, or locked him in solitary confinement.

When St. John of Avila heard of John’s plight he visited the asylum. He told John it was time to give up hysterics and find something useful to do for God. As the first step toward a productive life St. John of Avila recommended a pilgrimage to a shrine of Our Lady. At Spain’s shrine of Guadalupe John of God had a vision of the Virgin and Child who made him understand that his vocation was to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and tend the sick and the dying.

Back in Granada John rented a house and turned it into a hospital for the poor with 46 beds. It became a model of health care: contagious cases were kept separate from the other patients; each patient had his or her own bed (something rare even in private homes in 16th century Europe); the entire house was scrupulously clean; meals were served at set times; and John himself washed each patient daily.

In addition to the care of their bodies, John worried about the state of his patients’ souls. He invited priests to come hear confessions and administer the Last Rites, and he led the hospital in morning prayers.

Initially John had to beg in the street for everything his hospital needed. Once his reputation was established, however, doctors and nurses volunteered to help him and the people of Granada donated food, wine, bedding, and other supplies. Men who joined him to serve the sick poor became the nucleus of his nursing order, the Congregation of the Brothers of St. John of God.

Many miracles stories are told about John of God, but the most famous is the story of the burning hospital. Granada’s Grand Hospital was engulfed in a raging fire so intense the firefighters refused to enter the building. Someone said the sick were trapped inside. John pushed his way through the crowd, walked into the flames, and carried each patient to safety.

After twelve years of tireless service to the sick and the poor, John of God died while praying before the little private altar in his room. He was canonized in 1690 and named the patron of the sick, of hospitals, and of booksellers.

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Prayer to the saints is a powerful thing.

Now, with Saints for Every Occasion, readers can quickly find help for any challenge they face – no matter how large or small. Author Thomas J. Craughwell profiles 101 patron saints from various continents, cultures and times – from saints who were contemporaries of Christ, to modern patrons like Padre Pio and Faustina Kowalska. Each saint lived heroically in difficult times and circumstances, providing powerful examples of how to turn almost any obstacle into a source of grace. Along with old favorites such as St. Anthony and St. Jude, Craughwell offers patrons for specifically modern concerns, including, for example, saints to watch over astronauts, internet users and environmental activists. Beautifully illustrated and entertainingly told, Saints for Every Occasion features 101 patron saints readers will seek out time and again.

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