Saint John of God and a Christian perspective on the care of the sick

The modern debate over health care is certainly a debate worth having. But sometimes it’s helpful to step back from modern proposals about the care of the sick—typically involving legislation, bureaucracy, and costs—to think about how saints have approached this age-old problem.

For the first forty-two years of his life, Saint John of God (1495-1550)—whose feast day is March 8th—certainly didn’t look like the kind of man who would dedicate his life to caring for sick people. He was born in a village in Portugal and was kidnapped from his home at the age of eight. His abductor was a priest, who, for unclear reasons, left him in Spain. John grew up in the town of Oropesa, where he received a basic education and was sent to work in the fields as a shepherd. He was happy there. But by the time he was twenty-two years old, he was looking for something more exciting than watching sheep.

When a war arose between Spain and France. John joined the infantry—not to defend his country but to see the world. Although he had been raised in the Catholic faith, he was not a particularly devout or virtuous soldier.

One day, to show off for his buddies, he agreed to go scouting for food in enemy territory. As he entered the French countryside, he was thrown by his horse and knocked unconscious. When he awoke, bleeding and injured, he realized he was in serious danger of being captured or killed by enemy soldiers. He fervently prayed for help from the Blessed Mother to be able to return to safety and was fortunate enough to be able to stumble back to his companions.

But soon afterward, he almost lost his life a second time. Because of his carelessness while on guard duty, a superior ordered John to be executed. Fortunately, a kind officer happened to be passing by and talked his superior out of it. John decided he’d had enough of being a soldier and ran away.

John returned to Oropesa and worked as a servant for another four years. But he was bored again. He enlisted to fight in a different war and spent some years fighting the Turks in Hungary. When that war ended, he found himself without anyplace else to go, so he decided to seek out his long-lost family back in Portugal.

When he returned to his native village in Portugal, he eventually found an uncle. The uncle sadly related that John’s mother had died a few weeks after his disappearance, apparently of a broken heart over losing her son. His father entered a monastery soon afterward, where he died years later.

It does not appear that John had previously given any thought to his parents in Portugal. But now, having realized the pain that his absence had caused his parents, he was full of remorse and blamed himself for their deaths. (Perhaps his abduction at the age of eight had not truly been an abduction. Perhaps the priest had enticed the boy to leave his village as a servant, with the promise of adventure. Or perhaps something more nefarious happened. We’ll never know for certain.)

Chastened by this revelation about his long-dead parents, John returned to Spain and worked as a shepherd for a time. But he could not help noticing that the horses he had tended during the war were better fed and cared for than many of the poor laborers who lived around him. Tired once again of tending sheep, he decided to travel to Africa.

One of his fellow travelers on the boat to Africa was a Portuguese knight who had been forced into exile, along with his wife and four daughters. When their ship arrived in Ceuta, a Spanish city on the coast of North Africa, the knight became ill. Since the family had no money and no one to turn to for help, John cared for them and even took on various jobs to provide money to feed them.

The friends that John made in Ceuta were, like him, working as simple laborers and were often treated more like slaves than servants. One of John’s companions decided to escape this mistreatment by running away to a Muslim city and converting to Islam. When John realized what his friend had done, he bitterly blamed himself for not trying harder to talk his friend out of renouncing his faith in Christ for the sake of a more comfortable life.

At this point, John realized that he could be tempted in the same way and that he was endangering his soul by staying in Ceuta. He made a heartfelt confession to a Franciscan friar, apologized to the Portuguese family he had been serving, and got on a boat back to Spain. When he landed at Gibraltar, he went to the nearest church to make a general confession of all his sins, prayed at churches throughout the city for a time, and told God that he wanted to place himself entirely in God’s service. But John still didn’t know what, precisely, God wanted him to do.

While walking through the streets one day, he happened across a market where religious pictures and books were sold. This inspired him to purchase religious materials of his own and sell them as a means of bringing other people closer to God.

At first, John also purchased some secular books. But when he realized that people ignored his devotional books when they saw worldly novels for sale, he did everything he could to talk his customers into choosing religious works instead, even offering them at bargain prices. Eventually he got tired of carrying his stock of books from town to town, so he set up his own shop in Granada. He was about forty-two years old.

On the feast of Saint Sebastian, the famous preacher—now Saint and Doctor of the Church—John of Ávila arrived in Granada. Father John preached to a large crowd about the sufferings that Sebastian had accepted out of love for Christ, moving the hearts of the entire congregation.

John had already experienced a few conversions in his life. Father John’s powerful sermon led to an even deeper awareness of his sinfulness and of Christ’s love for him. After the priest’s sermon had ended, John raced out of the church. He began crying out loudly for God’s mercy, even beating his head against a wall and throwing himself to the ground. He returned to his shop and gave away everything he owned, including his personal possessions.

Of course, as John wandered through the streets of Granada, half-dressed and calling out for God’s mercy on his soul, people thought he was crazy. Some compassionate people took him to see Father John of Ávila, who told John that God had accepted his acts of penance and encouraged him to trust in God and his mercy from now on.

But John, who was now thoroughly convinced that he was a great sinner in the eyes of Almighty God, decided that being humiliated by other people was exactly what he deserved. He continued his strange and penitential behavior until people had him placed in an asylum.

Believing that John was mentally unwell, the guards at the asylum dealt with him just as they dealt with any other person with mental illness: they beat him, whipped him, and locked him in a dungeon. This “treatment” was supposed to bring him to his senses.

Father John had already left Granada, but when he learned about the fate of his penitent, he sent another priest to visit John. This priest told John that he no longer needed to practice this unique kind of penance, that is, acting like he was crazy. John settled down immediately, which shocked the guards. And then John prayed about what to do next.

He realized that the other patients in the asylum were not being treated at all; they were being ignored and beaten. That’s why John began to care for them himself. When his jailors noticed that John seemed normal again, they gave him permission to leave.

John then returned to the city of Granada. He began gathering wood for the poor, which was considered such a lowly occupation that John was initially humiliated by the thought that his past friends might recognize him. However, he continued to serve the needy in this humble way all winter, and he began to look for a better way to serve them.

John realized that many sick people in Granada who could not afford medical care, and so he bought a house and filled it with sick people who had nowhere else to go. During the day, he tenderly cared for each of his poor, sick friends, and every evening around dinnertime, he walked through the city streets and begged for food to feed them. Although some people in Granada still considered John a madman, people gradually began to recognize him as a man of genuine compassion. Over time, more and more people donated food and money to his hospital for the poor.

His mission expanded as he welcomed orphans, found work for those who had recovered from illnesses, and sought out those poor people who were too proud to admit their poverty to others. He even went to red-light districts and began an apostolate to prostitutes. He spoke to these fallen women about God’s love for them and gently tried to encourage them to leave that way of life. He was often able to help repentant women move to other cities, enter convents, or find husbands.

John’s example of charity moved the hearts of both the poor and the rich. Generous contributions from the nobility helped him open more hospitals. To obtain more money for the poor of Granada, he traveled (on foot) to the Spanish capital of Valladolid. Unfortunately, he discovered that there were plenty of poor people in the capital city who needed help there, too. When he returned to Granada, he had nothing to bring back to the poor, but he had established hospitals for the poor in Valladolid with the financial assistance of members of the Spanish court.

Many men were inspired by John’s example and asked to share his way of life. These men later became known as the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. They were inspired not only by John’s works of charity but also by his astonishing humility (he never stopped calling himself a great sinner); his penitential life (he allowed himself only a few hours of sleep each night); and his great love for God (which is the reason he was given the nickname of Brother John of God).

John’s brothers also witnessed him being attacked by demons, and they sometimes saw him read the consciences of others, particularly those who needed to go to Confession. When one of John’s hospitals caught fire, the firefighters decided the situation was too dangerous and refused to enter the building. But John himself went inside to rescue his patients, carrying them out on his own back. Miraculously, John survived and only lost his eyebrows during his fiery experience.

A dozen years had passed since his dramatic conversion following Father John’s sermon in Granada. When the nearby river flooded, John went to the riverside to save some wood he had gathered for the poor. When he saw a young boy fall into the swollen river, he jumped in to rescue him. He saved the boy’s life, but he never fully recovered his health afterwards.

Not everyone loves a living saint. One man complained to the archbishop of Granada that some of the residents of John’s hospital were committing serious sins (presumably of a sexual nature) and that John was doing nothing to stop them. When the archbishop questioned John about this, John humbly responded that he, John, was the only wicked person living in his hospital. Recognizing a holy man when he saw one, the archbishop sent John back to his hospital in peace.

As John’s health deteriorated, a noblewoman insisted on having him brought into her own home to be cared for. John refused this offer repeatedly until his archbishop ordered him to accept. John suffered patiently during his final illness and blessed his brothers before he died. Afterwards, the entire city came to pay their respects and attend his funeral. Years later, his body was discovered to be incorrupt.

What does the example of Saint John of God teach us about caring for the sick?

Perhaps the most important lesson from the life of Saint John is the inestimable gift of Christian repentance. John did not choose to care for the sick because he enjoyed the smelly, hard work of nursing, but because he wanted to atone for his sins. He unflinchingly looked back on his life of selfish, foolhardy, and slothful choices and compared that to the selfless, constant, and merciful love of God. Recognizing the great grace offered to him through Jesus Christ, John tried to show Christlike charity to others.

Just like John, when we sincerely try to see ourselves as God sees us, we will come to recognize our sins and weaknesses. Then He will make it possible for us to lovingly and joyfully care for those who are suffering because we will possess His Sacred Heart, rather than our own pitiful, selfish hearts.

This approach, of course, is the complete opposite of what we are tempted to do when we encounter injustice in the world. It is easier to feed our anger and vilify those we consider to be responsible for unjust situations than it is to sacrifice our own time to care for those who are suffering from sickness, confusion, pain, poverty, and loneliness.

John’s witness in one city in Spain eventually spread all over the world, earning him the title of patron saint of the sick, as well as patron of hospital workers, nurses, booksellers, firefighters, and many other causes. What would Saint John of God probably recommend in response to our modern fights about insurance, government programs, legislation, and subsidies? Become a saint.