San Juan de Dios
“The Saint of the Poor”
S. Juan de Dios
His name was Juan City. He was born in 1495 near Évora, in the kingdom of Portugal. He was a shepherd, a bricklayer, a street vendor of books and prints, his path brought him to Granada where he worked as a book seller in a store in Puerta Elvira.
After hearing San Juan de Ávila preach, his conversion takes place in the hermitage of the Martyrs, after this fact he has such an extraordinary spiritual upheaval that he gives voices and shouts, wanders around the city naked, which would lead him to be judged as crazy and be confined in the Royal Hospital of Granada. With the generosity of the people, their enthusiasm and their humility and using the houses of their benefactors to welcome the sick and underprivileged in the city, he began his work and soon rented a house, where he set up his first hospital. His fame quickly grows in Granada, knowing him as the blessed Juan. In the following ten years his work grows and he opens another hospital in the. He is likewise an innovator of hospital care of his time. His works multiply and the number of his followers grows, laying the foundations of his work over time. This is how the Order of the Hospitaller Brothers was born. His tireless work made him fall ill and the Pisa family welcomed him into their home, where he died on March 8, 1550. His burial was massive.
He was beatified in 1630 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized in 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII. Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) declared him patron of the sick and hospitals.
Today the order of San Juan de Dios that bears his name is a Hospitaller and mendicant Order, of Catholic confession, dedicated to non-profit activities within the socio-health field throughout the world. It was founded in 1572 by his disciples and they continue the hospital work of its founder.
*Ask us if you want a Private Tour and Visit*
“Do well for the love of God, my brothers. S. John of God
We will discover with our Expert Guide Granada and the 16th century city at the hands of one of its most universal and emblematic characters: “”Juan the Bookseller””, San Juan de Dios. On this special and monographic route, we will discover the most emblematic places related to his life, relevant and emotional facts of the biography of Juan de Dios, linked to the most representative places of the multicultural, Carolina, Granada of the 16th century. A central street, two hospitals, a basilica, a museum, commemorative plaques, sculptural monuments and numerous works of art, remind us of the importance and transcendence of the life and work of San Juan de Dios through the streets of Renaissance Granada
Plaza de Sta Ana (plaza Nueva) 10 minutes before start time
Spanish (consult us other languages).
Aprox. 2,5 hours