What is the maximum age at which someone can still become a successful person? St. John of God, had been a shepherd, soldier, and merchant before he was converted through the preaching of St. John of Ávila. He went on to found the Order of the Hospitaller Brothers.
Newsroom (03/08/2025 09:41, Gaudium Press) What is the maximum age at which someone can still become a successful person? How long should one keep searching for a vocation?
St. John of God was already 43 when he finally understood the purpose for which he had been born. Let us retrace, through the many missteps he took, the lesson he learned from Divine Providence.
Childhood and Youth
Little John was Portuguese, born in Montemor-o-Novo, in Alentejo, on March 8, 1495.
The first fact we know from his childhood is that he fled from home, leaving his parents distraught—people who never heard from him again! It’s unclear whether this happened by his own choice or if he was kidnapped, but by the age of eight he was in Spain.
Perhaps he was a victim of a crime; perhaps he was disappointed with something at home and ran away.
He is the patron saint of those who are lost, and he himself was truly lost for a long time! His mother, suffering from his disappearance, died soon afterward.
His father asked to join a monastery, and that is where he spent the rest of his days. Such was the tragic situation for young John, who would later return to his hometown only to find no family members left.
Until the age of fourteen, John of God stayed in Madrid, taken in by a foster father, Francisco Cid, the mayoral—head shepherd—of the Count of Oropesa.
When John reached the age of majority at that time, Francisco made him his apprentice and hired him to tend his flock.
It is worth noting that St. John grew up alongside Francisco’s daughter, and when he turned twenty-eight, Francisco wanted to unite his two protégés in Holy Matrimony.
Here again, John showed how lost he still was. Unsure whether he truly wanted to marry, he ran away from his beloved tutor’s household and, in 1522, enlisted in the Spanish troops sent to defend Fuenterrabia.
Army and African Continent: Two of St. John of God’s Journeys
St. John fought in the battles of others, fleeing from the battle within himself: he was a soldier under Charles V and succeeded in earning a salary before leaving the army. That, too, was not his place. Where would the lost John of God go next? He decided to head to Portugal to see his parents, after more than twenty years away. But upon arriving in his hometown, he found only an elderly uncle. His mother had died shortly after his disappearance, consumed with sorrow over her missing child, and his father had joined a Franciscan convent, where he passed away not long afterward. The sense of guilt in John’s heart was immense.
Next, we find him in North Africa, working as a traveling salesman. But on the hot streets of that African land, he also failed to discover his true calling. The local conditions, along with the presence of the army in the region, made it extremely difficult to persevere in the Faith. Following the advice of a Franciscan priest, he soon returned to Spain.
By then St. John was nearing forty, still without a clear sense of who he really was.
After working various odd jobs, he became an itinerant bookseller. It is said that one day, while passing through a desolate area, he saw a solitary little boy, barefoot and injuring his feet on the rocky path. John tried to give him his own shoes, but they were far too big… So he carried the boy on his back for a long distance, and when they reached a spring, he set the child down under a tree to fetch water. Upon returning, he found the boy glowing with a radiant light, holding in his right hand a pomegranate—granada in Spanish—opened wide, with a Cross shining above it. Stretching out the fruit, the boy exclaimed:
“John of God! Granada will be your Cross!”
And with that, the child vanished. John Cidade (as he was then known) saw in those words the answer to his prayers: God’s plan was leading him to Granada.
There, God’s designs would be fulfilled.
Conversion and Self-Discovery
One day, John of God went to hear a sermon by a well-known local preacher: John of Ávila. In his homily, the renowned friar passionately expounded on penance, the heroism of martyrdom, total surrender to God, and the offering of one’s own body to proclaim Christ’s truth.
Those words sank deep into John Cidade’s soul, and the fire of the Holy Spirit that filled St. John of Ávila’s heart passed into the heart of the lost soldier. From one John to another.
There, he understood. He realized he had lived a restless, wandering life, never knowing what he really wanted, because he had never asked the right question: “What does God want from me?”
All the roads he had traveled—from Spain to Africa—led him to that church on that day. Someone then introduced him to the saintly preacher, with whom he made a confession, revealing the state of his soul. Recognizing the hallmarks of a great vocation, Fr. Ávila took him on as a spiritual son.
Nothing was wasted. Nothing he suffered lacked a higher purpose.
He began performing public penances. For several days, he behaved in ways so strange to the people of Granada that they insulted, attacked, and scorned him as though he were mad. Because he played the part of a crazy man so convincingly, nearly everyone believed he was insane. Thus, he was admitted to the Royal Hospital, where the mentally ill, beggars, and the destitute were thrown together in wretched conditions.
At the time, the main “treatment” for those deemed insane was whipping and shackling…the idea being that pain and punishment would quell their rage and bring them back to sanity. So it was for St. John of God: bound hand and foot, he was mercilessly flogged.
After some days, he decided it was time to show he was in control of himself. They freed him from the shackles, allowing him to move freely around the building, where he cared for the sick with kindness and affection, taking on the hardest tasks.
Reflecting on how the Church needed a congregation specifically dedicated to caring for the sick, John rented a small house, which became his first hospital: 46 beds made of old straw mats, covered with threadbare blankets. He gathered there all the sick and needy he could find. By day, he cared for them and sold bundles of firewood; by night, he walked around the city asking for alms.
Today, St. John of God is acclaimed as the Founder of the Hospitaller Order, a religious institution officially recognized by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 to serve the poor, the sick, and the elderly, with all the charity and love of Christ.
On March 8, 1550—his 55th birthday—John surrendered his soul to God.
For many years, St. John did not know how to live with himself. Perhaps you, dear reader, also struggle with this. As we have seen, it is no reason to despair. God has His own ways, and St. John of God is living proof of that.
So always pray to the Lord. Ask Him to reveal His path to you. But above all, pray for the strength to embark on that long journey you may need to make to find your true self.
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
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