Confessor, Founder of the Brothers Hospitallers, born Montemor Novo, Portugal, 1495; died Granada, Spain, 1550. His early life was unsettled and nomadic. He worked as a shepherd in Castile. After serving in Charles V's army he lived in Africa for some time and later, returning to Spain, peddled religious books and pictures in Gibraltar. The Infant Jesus, appearing to him, addressed him as "John of God," and bade him go to Granada. There, won over to the religious life by the teaching and example of Blessed John of Avila, he devoted himself to caring for the sick, and founded, for that purpose, the Grand Hospital at Granada and the Brothers Hospitallers. Patron of the sick and of hospitals, of printers and booksellers. Emblems: alms, a heart, crown of thorns. Canonized, 1690. Relics at Granada. Feast, Roman Calendar, March 8,.