Santoral today: what are the name days that are commemorated this Wednesday, March 8

Good deeds, deadly sacrifices, and even inexplicable occurrences arising from apparent divinity, are the reasons why different individuals have been beatified and canonized by the Vatican carry with him the name of saint.

Every daymarked on the calendar, commemorates the life and death of those beings, men and women, who have dedicated their lives to the same Catholic Church which has earned them the appointment.

It is the day of the saint Wednesday, March 8.

He was born and died on March 8. He was born in Portugal in 1495 and died in Granada, Spain in 1550 at the age of 55.

From a poor but very pious family. His mother died when he was still young. His father died as a religious in a convent.

In his youth he was a shepherd, much appreciated by the owner of the farm where he worked. They proposed that he marry the boss’s daughter and thus remain the heir to these assets, but he decided to remain free from his economic and domestic commitments as he wanted to devote himself to more spiritual work.

He was a soldier under the command of the genius of war, Carlos V in very famous battles. Military life made him strong, resistant and enduring.

The Holy Virgen saved him from hanging, because once they put him to war to take care of a large warehouse and for not being vigilant enough, the enemies took everything. His colonel arranged to have him hanged, but Juan confided in all faith to the Mother of God and managed to have his life spared. And he left the army, because for this he was not very suitable.

After leaving the army, he wanted to do some apostolate and dedicated himself to being an itinerant seller of prints and religious books.

Arriving in the city of Granada, he saw a very poor and needy little boy and he kindly offered to help him. This “poor” was the representation of the Child Jesus, who said to him: “Pomegranate will be your cross” and disappeared.

When Juan was peddling religious books in Granada, suddenly the famous Father San Luis de Avila came to preach a mission. Juan attended uno de sus elocuentes sermones y en pleno sermon, cuando el preacher hablaba contra la vida de pecado, nuestro hombre se arrodillo y empezó a gritar: “Misericordia Señor, que soy un pecador” y salió gritando por las calles, pidiendo perdón farewell. He was around 40 years old.

He confessed in San Juan de Avila and proposed a very special penance: acting crazy so that people would humiliate him and make him suffer a lot.

He distributed to the poor everything he had in his little bookstore, he began to wander the streets of the city asking God for mercy for all his sins.

People thought he was crazy and started attacking him with rocks and kicks.

Finally, they took him to the asylum and the managers beat him badly, because that was the way they had at the time to calm the insane: to whip them severely. But they noticed that Juan was not upset by the blows they gave him, but offered everything to God. But at the same time he corrected the guards and drew their attention to the brutality with which they treated the poor sick people.

Saint John of God in front of a sick person who resembles the stay of Our Lord John in this asylum, which was a real hell, was truly providential, because he realized the great mistake it is to try to cure mental illness with methods of torture. And when he leaves, he will found a hospital and there, although he knows little about medicine, he will show that he is much better than doctors, especially in mental illnesses, and he will teach by his example that some patients must first be healed.soul if you want to get your body healed. His religious care for the mentally ill on all continents and with great and wonderful results, always using the methods of kindness and understanding, instead of the rigor of torture.

When San Juan de Avila returned to the city and found that his convert was being held in an asylum, he went and managed to get him out and advised him not to do the penance of playing fool again to be martyred by the people. From now on, he will devote himself to a true “madness of love”: to devote all his life and his energy to helping the most miserable sick people for love of Christ Jesus, whom they represent.

Juan rents an old house and there he begins to receive any sick person, beggar, madman, old man, orphan and homeless person who asks for his help. Throughout the day he tends to everyone with the most exquisite affection, acting as nurse, cook, sweeper, errand boy, father, friend and brother to all. At night, he goes down the street asking for alms for his poor.

Juan’s cry in the streets at night quickly became popular throughout Granada. He left with rucksacks and cooking pots, shouting: Make good brothers, for your good! People came out to the door of their houses and gave him what was left of the day’s food. When he returned around midnight, he devoted himself to cleaning the hospital and at dawn he lay down to sleep for a while under a staircase. A true charity hero.

The bishop, admired by the great charity work that Juan was doing, added two words to his first name and began to call him “Juan de Dios” and that is what everyone called him from then on. Then, as this man frequently exchanged his fine toilet for the rags of the poor he found in the streets, the prelate gave him a black tunic as a uniform; This is how he dressed until his death and this is how his monks dressed for several centuries.

One day his hospital caught fire and Juan de Dios entered several times through the flames to get the sick out and although he went through huge flames he did not suffer any burns and managed to save the lives of all these poor.

Another day the river came down hugely swollen and dragged a lot of logs and sticks. Juan needed a lot of firewood for the winter, as it is very cold in Granada and the old people liked to warm themselves around the fire. So he went to the river to get logs, but one of his companions, very young, recklessly entered the violent waters and was carried away by the current. The saint jumped into the water to try to save his life and as the river descended extremely cold, it hurt his arthritis disease and he started to suffer terribly.

After so many works, fasts and late vigils to do good and colds to help his sick, John of God’s health was completely weakened. He did everything so that no one noticed the terrible pain that tormented him day and night, but in the end he was no longer able to pretend. Above all, the arthritis had twisted his legs and caused him untold pain. Then a venerable lady of the town obtained permission from the bishop to take him home and nurse him a little. The saint went before the Blessed Sacrament of the altar and prayed for a long time with all the fervor before saying goodbye to his beloved hospital. He entrusted the direction of his work to Antonio Martín, a man whom he had converted and had made him a religious and his collaborator, as well as another man whom Antonio hated; and after befriending them, the saint managed to get them to help him in his work for the poor, like two good friends.

Arriving at the rich lady’s house, Juan exclaimed, “Oh, these comforts are too much luxuries for me to be such a wretched sinner.” There they tried to cure him of his painful illness, but it was too late.

On March 8, 1550, feeling that death was coming upon him, he knelt on the ground and cried out: “Jesus, Jesus, into your hands I surrender myself” and he remained dead, thus on his knees. He had worked tirelessly for ten years running his hospital for the poor, with so many financial problems that sometimes he didn’t even dare to go out on the street because of the many debts he had; and with such humility that, being the greatest saint in the city, he thought himself the most unworthy sinner. He who had been stoned like a madman was accompanied to the cemetery by the bishop, the authorities and all the people, like a saint.

After his death, he obtained many miracles from God in favor of his faithful and the Pope declared him a saint in 1690. He is the Patron of those who work in hospitals and of those who distribute religious books.

He was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on September 1, 1630 and canonized by Pope Alexander VIII on October 16, 1690. He was named patron saint of hospitals and the sick.

When he died, his work spread throughout Spain and Italy and is now present on all five continents.

The religious Hospitallers of San Juan de Dios number 1500 and have 216 houses in the world for the service of the sick. The first Blesseds of Colombia belonged to this Holy Community.

With this character is other saints and martyrs which are also celebrated this Wednesday, March 8 as follows:

San Dutaco

Saint Etienne d’Obazina

Saint Felix de Domnoc

San Humfrido

saint litifredo

St. Ponce of Carthage

Saint Venus of Como

Saint Senano

Saint Theophylact

San Veremundo

Blessed Faustino Miguez

Blessed Vincent Kadlubek

The Catholic and Orthodox Church uses canonization to declare a deceased person a saint.which implies the inclusion of her name in the canon (list of recognized saints) and the authorization to venerate her, recognizing her power before God.

During Christianity, people were recognized as saints without the need for a formal process; however, this changed in the Middle Ages.

In the case of Catholicism, the Church must make an exhaustive investigation of the life of the person to be sanctified and there are four ways to obtain the appointment: the path of heroic virtues; the path of martyrdom; that of exceptional causes, confirmed by an ancient cult and written sources; and the offer of life.

Moreover, it is an essential requirement who performed at least two miracles (or one in the case of being a martyr). Canonization is made in a solemn papal declaration and a feast day is assigned for liturgical veneration.

There is no set time limit for proceeding with the canonization of a character, since there is even cases like that of San Pedro Damián who was canonized up to 756 years after his death or, conversely, the case of San Antonio de Padua which was named up to 352 days after his death.

The last canonization took place in October 2019, when the pope declared Cardinal John Henry Newman and Sister Dulce of Brazil saints.