ST. JOHN, surnamed of God, was born in Portugal, in 1495. His parents
were of the lowest rank in the country, but devout and charitable. John
spent a considerable part of his youth in service, under the mayoral or
chief shepherd of the count of Oropeusa in Castile, and in great
innocence and virtue. In 1522, he listed himself in a company of foot
raised by the count, and served in the wars between the French and
Spaniards; as he did afterwards in Hungary, against the Turks, while the
emperor Charles V. was king of Spain. By the licentiousness of his
companions, he by degrees lost his fear of offending God, and laid aside
the greatest part of his practices of devotion. The troop which he
belonged to being disbanded, he went into Andalusia in 1536, where he
entered the service of a rich lady near Seville, in quality of shepherd.
Being now about forty years of age, stung with remorse for his past
misconduct, he began to entertain very serious thoughts of a change of
life, and doing penance for his sins. He accordingly employed the
greatest part of his time, both by day and night, in the exercises {542}
of prayer and mortification, bewailing almost continually his
ingratitude towards God, and deliberating how he could dedicate himself
in the most perfect manner to his service. His compassion for the
distressed moved him to take a resolution of leaving his place, and
passing into Africa, that he might comfort and succor the poor slaves
there, not without hopes of meeting with the crown of martyrdom. At
Gibraltar he met with a Portuguese gentleman condemned to banishment,
and whose estate had also been confiscated by king John III. He was then
in the hands of the king's officers, together with his wife and
children, and on his way to Ceuta, in Barbary, the place of his exile.
John, out of charity and compassion, served him without any wages. At
Ceuta, the gentleman falling sick with grief and the change of air, was
soon reduced to such straits as to be obliged to dispose of the small
remains of his shattered fortune for the family's support. John, not
content to sell what little stock he was master of to relieve them, went
to day-labor at the public works, to earn all he could for their
subsistence. The apostacy of one of his companions alarmed him; and his
confessor telling him that his going in quest of martyrdom was an
illusion, he determined to return to Spain. Coming back to Gibraltar,
his piety suggested to him to turn pedler, and sell little pictures and
books of devotion, which might furnish him with opportunities of
exhorting his customers to virtue. His stock increasing considerably, he
settled in Granada, where he opened a shop, in 1538, being then
forty-three years of age.
The great preacher and servant of God, John D'Avila, {543} Apostle of
Andalusia, preached that year at Granada, on St. Sebastian's day, which
is there kept as a great festival. John, having heard his sermon, was so
affected with it, that, melting into tears, he filled the whole church
with his cries and lamentations; detesting his past life, beating his
breast, {544} and calling aloud for mercy. Not content with this, he ran
about the streets like a distracted person, tearing his hair, and
behaving in such a manner that he was followed everywhere by the rabble
with sticks and stones, and came home all besmeared with dirt and blood.
He then gave away all he had in the world, and having thus reduced
himself to absolute poverty, that he might die to himself, and crucify
all the sentiments of the old man, he began again to counterfeit the
madman, running about the streets as before, till some had the charity
to take him to the venerable John D'Avila, covered with dirt and blood.
The holy man, full of the Spirit of God, soon discovered in John the
motions of extraordinary graces, spoke to him in private, heard his
general confession, and gave him proper advice, and promised his
assistance ever after. John, out of a desire of the greatest
humiliations, returned soon after to his apparent madness and
extravagances. He was, thereupon, taken up and put into a madhouse, on
supposition of his being disordered in his senses, where the severest
methods were used to bring him to himself, all which he underwent in the
spirit of penance, and by way of atonement for the sins of his past
life. D'Avila, being informed of his conduct, came to visit him, and
found him reduced almost to the grave by weakness, and his body covered
with wounds and sores; but his soul was still vigorous, and thirsting
with the greatest ardor after new sufferings and humiliations. D'Avila
however told him, that having now been sufficiently exercised in that so
singular a method of penance and humiliation, he advised him to employ
himself for the time to come in something more conducive to his own and
the public good. His exhortation had its desired effect; and he grew
instantly calm and sedate, to the great astonishment of his keepers. He
continued, however, some time longer in the hospital, serving the sick,
but left it entirely on St. Ursula's day, in 1539. This his
extraordinary conduct is an object of our admiration, not of our
imitation: in this saint it was the effect of the fervor of his
conversion, his desire of humiliation, and a holy hatred of himself and
his past criminal life. By it he learned in a short time perfectly to
die to himself and the world; which prepared his soul for the graces
which God afterwards bestowed on him. He then thought of executing his
design of doing something for the relief of the poor; and, after a
pilgrimage to our Lady's in Guadaloupa, to recommend himself and his
undertaking to her intercession, in a place celebrated for devotion to
her, he began by selling wood in the market-place, to feed some poor by
the means of his labor. Soon after he hired a house to harbor poor sick
persons in, whom he served and provided for with an ardor, prudence,
economy, and vigilance, that surprised the whole city. This was the
foundation of the order of charity, in 1540, which, by the benediction
of heaven, has since been spread all over Christendom. John was occupied
all day in serving his patients: in the night he went out to carry in
new objects of charity, rather than to seek out provisions for them; for
people, of their own accord, brought him in all necessaries for his
little hospital. The archbishop of Granada, taking notice of so
excellent an establishment, and admiring the incomparable order observed
in it, both for the spiritual and temporal care of the poor, furnished
considerable sums to increase it, and favored it with his protection.
This excited all persons to vie with each other in contributing to it.
Indeed the charity, patience, and modesty of St. John, and his wonderful
care and foresight, engaged every one to admire and favor the institute.
The bishop of Tuy, president of the royal court of judicature in
Granada, having invited the holy man to dinner, put {545} several
questions to him, to all which he answered in such a manner, as gave the
bishop the highest esteem of his person. It was this prelate that gave
him the name of John of God, and prescribed him a kind of habit, though
St. John never thought of founding a religious order: for the rules
which bear his name were only drawn up in 1556, six years after his
death; and religious vows were not introduced among his brethren before
the year 1570.
To make trial of the saint's disinterestedness, the marquis of Tarisa
came to him in disguise to beg an alms, on pretence of a necessary
lawsuit, and he received from his hands twenty-five ducats, which was
all he had. The marquis was so much edified by his charity, that,
besides returning the sum, he bestowed on him one hundred and fifty
crowns of gold, and sent to his bospital every day, during his stay at
Granada, one hundred and fifty loaves, four sheep, and six pullets. But
the holy man gave a still more illustrious proof of his charity when the
hospital was on fire; for he carried out most of the sick on his own
back: and though he passed and repassed through the flames, and stayed
in the midst of them a considerable time, he received no hurt. But his
charity was not confined to his own hospital: he looked upon it as his
own misfortune if the necessities of any distressed person in the whole
country had remained unrelieved. He therefore made strict inquiry into
the wants of the poor over the whole province, relieved many in their
own houses, employed in a proper manner those that were able to work,
and with wonderful sagacity laid himself out every way to comfort and
assist all the afflicted members of Christ. He was particularly active
and vigilant in settling and providing for young maidens in distress to
prevent the danger to which they are often exposed, of taking bad
courses. He also reclaimed many who were already engaged in vice: for
which purpose he sought out public sinners, and holding a crucifix in
his hand, with many tears exhorted them to repentance. Though his life
seemed to be taken up in continual action, he accompanied it with
perpetual prayer and incredible corporal austerities. And his tears of
devotion, his frequent raptures, and his eminent spirit of
contemplation, gave a lustre to his other virtues. But his sincere
humility appeared most admirable in all his actions, even amid the
honors which he received at the court of Valladolid, whither business
called him. The king and princes seemed to vie with each other who
should show him the greatest courtesy, or put the largest alms in his
hands; whose charitable contributions he employed with great prudence in
Valladolid itself, and the adjacent country. Only perfect virtue could
stand the test of honors, amid which he appeared the most humble.
Humiliations seemed to be his delight: these he courted and sought, and
always underwent them with great alacrity. One day, when a woman called
him hypocrite, and loaded him with invectives, he gave her privately a
piece of money, and desired her to repeat all she had said in the
market-place.
Worn out at last by ten years' hard service in his hospital, he fell
sick. The immediate occasion of his distemper seemed to be excess of
fatigue in saving wood and other such things for the poor in a great
flood, in which, seeing a person in danger of being drowned, he swam in
his long clothes to endeavor to rescue him, not without imminent hazard
of his own life: but he could not see his Christian brother perish
without endeavoring at all hazards to succor him. He at first concealed
his sickness, that he might not be obliged to diminish his labors and
extraordinary austerities; but in the mean time he carefully revised the
inventories of all things belonging to his hospital, and inspected all
the accounts. He also reviewed all the excellent regulations which he
had made for its administration, the distribution of {546} time, and the
exercises of piety to be observed in it. Upon a complaint that he
harbored idle strollers and bad women, the archbishop sent for him, and
laid open the charge against him. The man of God threw himself prostrate
at his feet, and said: "The Son of God came for sinners, and we are
obliged to promote their conversion, to exhort them, and to sigh and
pray for them. I am unfaithful to my vocation because I neglect this;
and I confess that I know no other bad person in my hospital but myself;
who, as I am obliged to own with extreme confusion, am a most base
sinner, altogether unworthy to eat the bread of the poor." This he spoke
with so much feeling and humility that all present were much moved, and
the archbishop dismissed him with respect, leaving all things to his
discretion. His illness increasing, the news of it was spread abroad.
The lady Anne Ossorio was no sooner informed of his condition, but she
came in her coach to the hospital to see him. The servant of God lay in
his habit in his little cell, covered with a piece of an old coat
instead of a blanket, and having under his head, not indeed a stone, as
was his custom, but a basket, in which he used to beg alms in the city
for his hospital. The poor and sick stood weeping round him. The lady,
moved with compassion, dispatched secretly a message to the archbishop,
who sent immediately an order to St. John to obey her as he would do
himself, during his illness. By virtue of this authority she obliged him
to leave his hospital. He named Anthony Martin superior in his place,
and gave moving instructions to his brethren, recommending to them, in
particular, obedience and charity. In going out he visited the blessed
sacrament, and poured forth his heart before it with extraordinary
fervor; remaining there absorbed in his devotions so long, that the lady
Anne Ossorio caused him to be taken up and carried into her coach, in
which she conveyed him to her own house. She herself prepared with the
help of her maids, and gave him with her own hands, his broths and other
things, and often read to him the history of the passion of our
Redeemer. He complained that while our Saviour, in his agony, drank
gall, they gave him, a miserable sinner, broths. The whole city was in
tears; all the nobility visited him; the magistrates came to beg he
would give his benediction to their city. He answered, that his sins
rendered him the scandal and reproach of their country; but recommended
to them his brethren, the poor, and his religious that served them. At
last, by order of the archbishop, he gave the city his dying
benediction. His exhortations to all were most pathetic. His prayer
consisted of most humble sentiments of compunction and inflamed
aspirations of divine love. The archbishop said mass in his chamber,
heard his confession, gave him the viaticum and extreme unction, and
promised to pay all his debts, and to provide for all his poor. The
saint expired on his knees, before the altar, on the 8th of March, in
1550, being exactly fifty-five years old. He was buried by the
archbishop at the head of all the clergy, both secular and regular,
accompanied by all the court, noblesse, and city, with the utmost pomp.
He was honored by many miracles, beatified by Urban VIII. in 1630, and
canonized by Alexander VIII. in 1690. His relics were translated into
the church of his brethren in 1664. His order of charity to serve the
sick was approved of by pope Pius V. The Spaniards have their own
general: but the religious in France and Italy obey a general who
resides at Rome. They follow the rule of St. Austin.
* * * * *
One sermon perfectly converted one who had been long enslaved to the
world and his passions, and made him a saint. How comes it that so many
sermons and pious books produce so little fruit in our souls? It is
altogether owing to our sloth and wilful hardness of heart, that we
receive God's {547} omnipotent word in vain, and to our most grievous
condemnation. The heavenly seed can take no root in hearts which receive
it with indifference and insensibility, or it is trodden upon and
destroyed by the dissipation and tumult of our disorderly affections, or
it is choked by the briers and thorns of earthly concerns. To profit by
it, we must listen to it with awe and respect, in the silence of all
creatures, in interior solitude and peace, and must carefully nourish it
in our hearts. The holy law of God is comprised in the precept of divine
love; a precept so sweet, a virtue so glorious and so happy, as to carry
along with it its present incomparable reward. St. John, from the moment
of his conversion, by the penitential austerities which he performed,
was his own greatest persecutor; but it was chiefly by heroic works of
charity that he endeavored to offer to God the most acceptable sacrifice
of compunction, gratitude, and love. What encouragement has Christ given
us in every practice of this virtue, by declaring, that whatever we do
to others he esteems as done to himself! To animate ourselves to fervor,
we may often call to mind what St. John frequently repeated to his
disciples, "Labor without intermission to do all the good works in your
power, while time is allowed you." His spirit of penance, love, and
fervor he inflamed by meditating assiduously on the sufferings of
Christ, of which he often used to say: "Lord, thy thorns are my roses,
and thy sufferings my paradise."
Footnotes:
1. The venerable John of Avila, or Avilla, who may be called the father
of the most eminent saints that flourished in Spain in the sixteenth
century, was a native of the diocese of Toledo. At fourteen years of
age he was sent to Salamanca, and trained up to the law. From his
infancy he applied himself with great earnestness to prayer, and all
the exercises of piety and religion; and he was yet very young when
he found his inclinations strongly bent towards an ecclesiastical
state in order to endeavor by his tears and labors to kindle the
fire of divine love in the hearts of men. From the university his
parents called him home, but were surprised and edified to see the
ardor with which he pursued the most heroic practices of Christian
perfection; which, as they both feared God, they were afraid in the
least to check, or damp his fervor. His diet was sparing, and as
coarse as he could choose, without an appearance of singularity or
affectation; he contrived to sleep on twigs, which he secretly laid
on his bed, wore a hair shirt, and used severe disciplines. What was
most admirable in his conduct, was the universal denial of his will,
by which he labored to die to himself, added to his perfect
humility, patience, obedience, and meekness, by which he subjected
his spirit to the holy law of Christ. All his spare time was devoted
to prayer, and he approached very frequently the holy sacraments. In
that of the blessed Eucharist he began to find a wonderful relish
and devotion, and he spent some hours in preparing himself to
receive it with the utmost purity of heart and fervor of love he was
able to bring to that divine banquet. In the commerce of the world
he appeared so much out of his element, that he was sent to the
university of Alcala, where he finished his studies in the same
manner he had began them, and bore the first prize in philosophy and
his other classes. F. Dominic Soto, the learned Dominican professor,
who was his master, conceived for him the warmest affection and the
highest esteem, and often declared how great a man he doubted not
this scholar would one day become. Peter Guerrera, who was
afterwards archbishop of Toledo, was also from that time his great
admirer, and constant friend. Both his parents dying about that
time, John entered into holy orders. On the same day on which he
said his first mass, instead of giving an entertainment according to
the custom, he provided a dinner for twelve poor persons, on whom he
waited at table, and whom he clothed at his own expense, and with
his own hands. When he returned into his own country, he sold his
whole estate, for he was the only child and heir of his parents: the
entire price he gave to the poor, reserving nothing for himself
besides an old suit of mean apparel, desiring to imitate the
apostles, whom Christ forbade to carry either purse or scrip. Taking
St. Paul for his patron and model, he entered upon the ministry of
preaching, in which sublime function his preparation consisted not
merely in the study and exercise of oratory, and in a consummate
knowledge of faith, and of the rules of Christian virtue, but much
more in a perfect victory over himself and his passions, the entire
disengagement of his heart and affections from the world and all
earthly things, an eminent spirit of humility, tender charity, and
inflamed zeal for the glory of God, and the sanctification of souls.
He once said to a young clergyman, who consulted him by what method
he could learn the art of preaching with fruit, that it was no other
than that of the most ardent love of God. Of this he was himself a
most illustrious example. Prayer, and an indefatigable application
to the duties of his ministry, divided his whole time; and such was
his thirst of the salvation of souls, that the greatest labors and
dangers were equally his greatest gain and pleasure; he seemed even
to gather strength from the former, and confidence and courage from
the latter. His inflamed sermons, supported by the admirable example
of his heroic virtue, and the most pure maxims of the gospel,
delivered with an eloquence and an unction altogether divine, from
the overflowings of a heart burning with the most ardent love of
God, and penetrated with the deepest sentiments of humility and
compunction, had a force which the most hardened hearts seemed not
able to withstand. Many sacred orators preach themselves rather than
the word of God, and speak with so much art and care, that their
hearers consider more how they speak than what they say. This true
minister of the gospel never preached or instructed others without
having first, for a considerable time, begged of God with great
earnestness to move both his tongue and the hearts of his hearers:
he mounted the pulpit full of the most sincere distrust in his own
abilities and endeavors, and contempt of himself; and with the most
ardent thirst of the salvation of the souls of all his hearers. He
cast his nets, or rather sowed the seed, of eternal life. The Holy
Ghost, who inspired and animated his soul, seemed to speak by the
organ of his voice; and gave so fruitful a blessing to his words,
that wonderful were the conversions he everywhere wrought. Whole
assemblies came from his sermons quite changed, and their change
appeared immediately in their countenances and behavior. He never
ceased to exhort those that were with him by his inflamed
discourses, and the absent by his letters. A collection of these,
extant in several languages, is a proof of his elo quence,
experimental science of virtue, and tender and affecting charity.
The ease with which he wrote them without study, shows how richly
his mind was stored with an inexhausted fund of excellent motives
and reflections on every subject matter of piety, with what
readiness he disposed those motives in an agreeable methodical
manner, and with what unction he expressed them, insomuch that his
style appears to be no other than the pure language of his heart,
always bleeding for his own sins and those of the world. So various
are the instructions contained in these letters, that any one may
find such as are excellently suited to his particular circumstances,
whatever virtue he desires to obtain, or vice to shun, and under
whatever affliction he seeks for holy advice and comfort. It was
from the school of an interior experienced virtue that he was
qualified to be so excellent a master. This spirit of all virtues he
cultivated in his soul by their continual exercise. Under the
greatest importunity of business, besides his office and mass, with
a long preparation and thanksgiving, he never failed to give to
private holy meditation two hours, when he first rose in the
morning, from three till five o'clock, and again two hours in the
evening before he took his rest, for which he never allowed himself
more than four hours of the night, from eleven till three o'clock.
During the time of his sickness, towards the latter end of his life,
almost his whole time was devoted to prayer, he being no longer able
to sustain the fatigue of his functions. His clothes were always
very mean, and usually old; his food was such as he bought in the
streets, which wanted no dressing, as herbs, fruit, or milk; for he
would never have a servant. At the tables of others he ate sparingly
of whatever was given him, or what was next at hand. He exceedingly
extolled, and was a true lover of holy poverty, not only as it is an
exercise of penance, and cuts off the root of many passions, but
also as a state dear to those who love our divine Redeemer, who was
born, lived, and died, in extreme poverty. Few persons ever appeared
to be more perfectly dead to the world than this holy man. A certain
nobleman, who was showing him his curious gardens, canals, and
buildings, expressed his surprise to see that no beauties and
wonders of art and nature could fix his attention or raise his
curiosity. The holy man replied, "I trust confess that nothing of
this kind gives me any satisfaction because my heart takes no
pleasure in them." This holy man was so entirely possessed with God,
and filled with the love of invisible things, as to loathe all
earthly things, which seemed not to have a direct and immediate
tendency to them. He preached at Seville, Cordova, Granada, Baeza,
and over the whole country of Andalusia. By his discourses and
instructions, St. John of God, St. Francis of Borgia, St. Teresa,
Lewis of Granada, and many others, were moved, and assisted to lay
the deep foundation of perfect virtue to which the divine grace
raised them. Many noblemen and ladies were directed by him in the
paths of Christian perfection, particularly the Countess of Feria
and the Marchioness of Pliego, whose conduct, first in a married
state, and afterwards in holy widowhood, affords most edifying
instances of heroic practices and sentiments of all virtues. This
great servant of God taught souls to renounce and cast away that
false liberty by which they are the worst of slaves under the
tyranny of their passions, and to take up the sweet chains of the
divine love which gives men a true sovereignty, not only over all
other created things, but also over themselves. He lays down in his
works the rules by which he conducted so many to perfect virtue,
teaching us that we must learn to know both God and ourselves, not
by the lying glass of self-love, but by the clear beam of truth:
ourselves, that we may see the depth of our miseries, and fly with
all our might from the cause thereof, which is our pride, and other
sins: God, that we may always tremble before his infinite majesty,
may believe his unerring truth, may hope for a share in his
inexhausted mercy, and may vehemently love that incomprehensible
abyss of goodness and charity. These lessons he lays down with
particular advice how to subside our passions. In his treatise on
the Audi filia, or on those words of the Holy Ghost, Psa. xliv,
_Hear me, daughter, bend thine ear, forget thy house,_ &c. The
occasion upon which he composed this book was as follows: Donna
Soncha Carilla, daughter of Don Lewis Fernandez of Cordoba, lord of
Guadalcazar, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, was
called to court to serve in quality of lady of honor to the queen.
Her father furnished her with an equipage, and every thing suitable;
but before her journey, she went to cast herself at the feet of
Avila, and make her confession. She afterwards said he reproved her
sharply for coming to the sacred tribunal of penance too richly
attired, and in a manner not becoming a penitent whose heart was
broken with compunction. What else passed in their conference is
unknown; but coming from the church, she begged to be excused from
going to court, laid aside all sumptuous attire, and gave herself up
entirely to recollection and penance. Thus she led a retired most
holy life in her father's house till she died, most happily, about
ten years after. Her pious director wrote this book for her
instruction in the practice of an interior life, teaching her how
she ought to subdue her passions, and vanquish temptations,
especially that of pride; also by what means she was to labor to
obtain the love of God, and all virtues. He dwells at length on
assiduous meditation, on the passion of Christ, especially on the
excess of love with which he suffered so much for us. His other
works, and all the writers who speak of this holy man, bear
testimony to his extraordinary devotion towards the passion of
Christ. From this divine book he learned the perfect spirit of all
virtues, especially a desire of suffering with him and for him. Upon
this motive he exhorts us to give God many thanks when he sends us
an opportunity of enduring some little, that by our good use of this
little trial, our Lord nay be moved to give us strength to suffer
more, and may send us more to undergo. Envy raising him enemies, he
was accused of shutting heaven to the rich, and upon that senseless
slander thrown into the prison of the inquisition at Seville. This
sensible disgrace and persecution he bore with incredible sweetness
and patience, and after he was acquitted, returned only kindnesses
to his calumniators. In the fiftieth year of his age he began to be
afflicted with the stone, frequent fevers, and a complication of
other painful disorders: under the sharpest pains he used often to
repeat this prayer, "Lord. increase my sufferings, but give me also
patience." Once, in a fit of exquisite pain, he begged our Redeemer
to assuage it: and that instant he found it totally removed, and he
fell into a gentle slumber. He afterwards reproached himself as
guilty of pusillanimity. It is not to be expressed how much he
suffered from sickness during the seventeen last years of his life.
He died with great tranquillity and devotion, on the 10th of May,
1569. The venerable John of Avila was a man powerful in words and
works, a prodigy of penance, the glory of the priesthood, the
edification of the church by his virtues, its support by his zeal,
its oracle by his doctrine. A profound and universal genius, a
prudent and upright director, a celebrated preacher, the apostle of
Andalusia, a man revered by all Spain, known to the whole Christian
world. A man of such sanctity and authority, that princes adopted
his decisions, the learned were improved by his enlightened
knowledge, and St. Teresa regarded him as her patron and protector,
consulted him as her master, and followed him as her guide and
model. See the edifying life of the venerable John of Avila, written
by F. Lewis of Granada; also by Lewis Munnoz: and the abstract
prefixed by Arnauld d' Andilly to the French edition of his works in
folio, at Paris, in 1673.