Today is the feast of St. John of God. If you will permit me, I think St. John could be the patron of all the mentally ill. He was even locked up in an insane asylum. And why? For taking his faith seriously! I kid you not. He cared not for sartorial splendor, dressed any which way, rejected his former worldly ways, and would go up to people and ask for their mercy. He knew he was a sinner and he was just (dramatically) asking them, his brothers and sisters, to pray for him to the Lord our God. Is that really so radical? Apparently so, as it turned out. When he tried to offer himself as a martyr in Africa (to the Muslims), the good people of Grenada, Spain felt that he was just such a danger to himself and others that they locked him away in a mental institution. Another St. John, St. John of Ávila, rescued him and suggested to him the true path of repentance . . . helping the sick and poor of the city. And charity does cure the sin-sick soul. He opened a free hospital/hospice and was astoundingly successful, though he was already forty-some years old when he started! Ancient! He kept up his habit of begging, but not so wildly as when he was asking for mercy. He even had a pleasant jingle when he asked people for money for his hospital: "Do yourselves a good turn, ladies and gentlemen, do yourselves a good turn."
He died at the age of 55, get this, from the chill he contracted after jumping into the river to save a drowning man. I LOVE this guy.
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