St. John of God Novena

Novena Begins:	February 28
Feast Day:	March 8

Patron Saint of: Booksellers, hospital workers, printers, the sick.

About St. John of God

John Ciudad was born in Portugal in 1495. At the age of eight, he ran away to Spain with a visiting priest and was left to work as a shepherd with a family willing to care for him. In 1522, he joined the Spanish army and a life of drinking and gambling. Fourteen years later he left the military and worked as a shepherd while contemplating his life. He searched for his parents only to find that they had died. Unsettled, he decided to go to Africa to ransom Christians captured by the Moors. On the ship he met a family that he served for a while but soon decided to move back to Spain. He opened a religious bookshop and sold items for little profit to try to spread the faith. Then, one day during a festival in the town, John heard Blessed John Avila speak. He was so filled with deep sorrow for his past that he gave away all his books and all that he owned and ran around the city beating his chest screaming and calling upon God’s forgiveness.

The people of the town thought he had gone crazy and had him committed to a mental hospital. John of Avila told John to stop all the open repentance and begin finding positive ways to atone for his past sins. John of God began caring for the people in the hospital. Upon his release, he began working in the streets of Granada caring for the sick and the poor.

At night, he sold firewood to help pay for food and supplies. He soon found a house for rent and opened a small hospital. He begged for money for beds and medicine. Priests and doctors donated their time and soon thereafter other men joined John in his ministry, forming the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. Stories spread of his unselfish devotion to the poor, the sick and the helpless. He died in 1550 after trying to save a person from drowning

Prayer to St. John of God

Day 1 – St. John of God Novena

Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saint John of God, heavenly Patron of the Sick, I come to you in prayer to seek your help in my present sickness. Through the love which Jesus had for you in choosing you for the sublime vocation of serving the sick, and through the tender affection with which the Blessed Virgin Mary placed upon your head a crown of thorns as a symbol of the sufferings you would undergo in the service of the sick to attain to your crown of glory, I beg you to intercede for me to Jesus and Mary that They may grant me a cure, if this should be according to the Will of God. How patiently you bore the sufferings of your own disease! Teach me to carry with cheerful resignation the cross that God has given me. Let me never complain or lose courage. Help me to understand that suffering is a very important means of sanctifying my soul, of atoning for my many sins, and of reaping a plentiful harvest of merit for Heaven. I trust in your great love for the sick and in the power of your intercession to help them.

Help me, good St. John, and beg the God whose name you bear to touch me as He touched the sick while on earth, that through His almighty power health may return to my body. And as you derived strength in your own sufferings from the crucifix, so may I be able to say what you did to Jesus Crucified: “Lord, Thy thorns are my roses and Thy sufferings my paradise.” Good Saint John, lover of those who suffer and special Patron of the Sick, I confidently place before you my earnest petition.

(Mention your request here…)

I beg you to recommend my request to Mary, the Mother of Sorrows and Health of the Sick, that both Mary and you may present it to Jesus, the Divine Physician. Saint John of God, patron of the Sick and beloved of Jesus and Mary, pray to Them for me and obtain my request. (Three times.)

Saint John of God, Patron of the Sick, pray for us.