John of God was a Portuguese soldier turned health-care worker in Spain, whose followers later formed the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a worldwide Catholic religious institute dedicated to the care of the poor, sick, and those suffering from mental disorders. He has been canonized by the Catholic Church, and is considered one of the leading religious figures in the Iberian Peninsula.

He was born João Duarte Cidade in Montemor-o-Novo, now in the District of Évora, Kingdom of Portugal, the son of André Cidade and Teresa Duarte. One day, when John was eight years of age, he disappeared. According to his original biography, his mother died from grief soon after this and his father joined the Franciscan Order.

The young Cidade soon found himself a homeless orphan in the streets of Oropesa, near Toledo, Spain. He was eventually taken in by a man called Francisco Mayoral and the boy settled down as a shepherd caring for his sheep in the countryside.

The farmer was so pleased with Cidade's strength and diligence that he wanted him to marry his daughter and to become his heir. When he was about 22 years of age, to escape his master's persistent, offer of his daughter's hand in marriage, the young man joined a company of foot-soldiers, and in that company fought for Charles V. While serving there, he was appointed to guard an enormous amount of loot, much of which had been rifled by the time he was relieved. John was suspected of theft and was condemned to death. However, a tolerant officer intervened to win his pardon.

Disillusioned by this turn of events, Cidade returned to the farm in Oropesa and spent four years again following a pastoral life. This went on until the day that the Count and his troops marched by, on their way to fight in Hungary against the Turks. John enrolled with them and for the next 18 years he served as a trooper in various parts of Europe.

Afterwards, Cidade arrived near Seville, where he soon found work herding sheep, which was familiar to him. Soon, he began to realize that this occupation no longer satisfied him and he felt a desire to see Africa, and possibly give his life as a martyr through working to free Christians enslaved there. He immediately set out for the Portuguese territory of Ceuta.

The desertion of one of Cidade's coworkers to a nearby Muslim city led to a growing feeling of despair in him. Troubled and feeling spiritually lost from his failure to practice his faith during his years of military service, he went to the Franciscan friary in the colony. There he was advised that his desire to be in Africa was not working to his spiritual growth and that he should consider returning to Spain. He decided to do this. Landing in Gibraltar, he began to wander around the region of Andalusia, trying to find what God might want from him.

It was during this period of his life that Cidade is said to have had a vision of the Infant Jesus, who bestowed on him the name by which he was later known, John of God, also directing him to go to Granada. Cidade then settled in that city, where he worked disseminating books, using the recent moveable type printing press of Johannes Gutenberg to provide people with works of chivalry and devotional literature.

Cidade experienced a major religious conversion on Saint Sebastian's Day (January 20) of 1537, while listening to a sermon by John of Ávila, a leading preacher of the day who was later to become his spiritual director and would encourage him in his quest to improve the life of the poor. At the age of 42, he had what was perceived at the time as an acute mental breakdown. Moved by the sermon, he soon engaged in a public beating of himself, begging mercy and wildly repenting for his past life. He was incarcerated in the area of the Royal Hospital reserved for the mentally ill and received the treatment of the day, which was to be segregated, chained, flogged, and starved. Cidade was visited by John of Avila, who advised him to be more actively involved in tending to the needs of others rather than in enduring personal hardships. John gained peace of heart, and shortly after left the hospital to begin work among the poor.

Around this time, he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, where it is said he experienced a vision of Mary, who encouraged him to work with the poor. He established a house where he wisely tended to the needs of the sick poor, at first doing his own begging. When John began to put into effect his dream, because of the stigma attached to mental illness, he found himself misunderstood and rejected.

Many stories are related of the heavenly guests who visited him during the early days of his immense tasks, which were lightened at times by the archangel Raphael in person. To put a stop to his custom of exchanging his cloak with any beggar he chanced to meet, Sebastian Ramirez, Bishop of Tui, had a religious habit made for him, which was later adopted in all its essentials as the religious garb of his followers, and the bishop imposed on him for all time the name given him by the Infant Jesus, John of God.

John of God died on March 8, 1550, his 55th birthday, in Granada. He died of pneumonia after he had plunged into a river to save a young man from drowning. His body was initially buried in the Church of Our Lady of the Victories, belonging to the Minim friars, and remained there until November 28, 1664, when the Hospitaller Brothers had his relics moved to the church of their hospital in the city.

John was canonized by Pope Alexander VIII on October 16, 1690, and later named the patron saint of hospitals and the sick.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Arian and Companions
2. Saint Julian of Toledo
3. Saint Philemon
4. Saint Pontius of Carthage
5. Saint Stephen of Obazine