Today's randomly generated saint is St. John of God. He's the patron of alcoholics, booksellers, the dying, firefighters, heart patients, hospitals, nurses, publishers, printers and the sick.
So wow, this guy has a crazy story. Apparently St. John was an incredibly impulsive person who threw himself head long into everything he did, hence the long list of patronages. At the age of 8 he left home to follow a priest who he travel with for several years before becoming ill. He was taken in by a man who managed a large estate and nursed back to health and basically adopted by the man. He stayed there for many years taking care of the sheep before running off to war to escape the pressures to marry the man's daughter, who he thought of like a sister. As a soldier he was hardly a model of holiness and was well known for drinking, fighting, and gambling. After being thrown off a stolen horse in enemy territory, he made a promise to clean up his act, and upon returning to his camp, he did. He made every one there angry by pushing them to give up their carousing as well, and narrowly escaped being hanged. He then returned to the estate and worked for many years until the next war. After that war, he decided to try to find his birth parents and was heartbroken to learn that they had died in his absence.
He then decided to go to Africa to free captive Christians, only on the way there he met a noble family who were being exiled and pledged to be their servant. The family fell sick after they arrived, and he nursed them back to health while working to build fortifications. The experience shook his faith, due to the cruel treatment he received from people who called themselves Catholics, and after the family was well and pardoned, he went to Spain to study.
He found so much joy in reading that he decided to sell books, first becoming a peddler, and then opening a store in Grananda. After hearing a sermon from John of Avila he was over come with grief at his own sins that he destroyed all the secular books he had in his store, gave away the Christian books and all of his money. Because of his apparent madness, he was taken to the Royal Hospital and interred as a lunatic. He was there for 40 days before John of Avila came to visit him, and had him moved to a better part of the hospital.
Now able to move around, he worked as an unpaid nurse in the hospital before leaving to start his own. He had no money, and so he sold wood in the square to take care of people right out on the streets. After a while he found a building that he rented, before begging for anything that people would be willing to give to furnish it. The he carried his patients there himself. Eventually he was able to move his hospital into an old Carmelite monastery. When Royal Hospital caught on fire, he rushed to the rescue, carrying the patients out before running back in to remove valuable bedding and mattress, before cutting the burning portion of the building away with an ax. He fell through the roof but emerged unharmed.
When he heard that flooding was bringing valuable driftwood towards them, he went out, with no regards to his poor health, to collect it. One of his companions fell into the river and St. John attempted to save him, but was unable to. He caught pneumonia and died on March 8th, his 55th birthday.
Basically this guy was crazy! I mean, seriously, you can't make a story like this up. He just threw himself head first into everything he did and then he managed to survive to 55? Wow.
Until later, dear readers, I remain,
Yours always,
Tara
