March 8 is the feast of St. John of God (1495-1550), the Portuguese-born founder of the Brothers Hospitallers and the patron of the sick and of hospitals. Born João Cidade at Montemor-o-Novo, in Portugal, he was a soldier, a shepherd, and a bookseller before his conversion at a sermon of St. John of Ávila at Granada in 1537. The sermon drove him to a public breakdown — he ran through the streets crying out, was taken to the royal hospital, and was himself treated as a madman.
After his recovery he devoted himself to the care of the sick poor of Granada, first on his own, then with companions. The Order of the Brothers of St. John of God, founded in 1540, was the first religious order specifically dedicated to hospital work. He died at Granada on March 8, 1550, kneeling before the crucifix, and was canonized in 1690. He is the patron of hospitals, of the sick, of nurses, and of the Brothers Hospitallers, who run hospitals in over fifty countries.
The body of John of God lies in the church of the Hospitaller brothers at Granada, in the Casa de los Pisa, the house where he died. From Lisbon, where he was born, to Granada, where he worked and died, the March 8 feast is the feast of the bookseller who became the patron of the sick.
