Saint Juan Grande Román

At the age of nineteen, Juan decided to dedicate himself entirely to God. He left his family and retired for a year to the hermitage of Santa Olalla in Marchena, near Carmona, to discern his vocation in prayer. He abandoned his civilian clothes for a habit of coarse sackcloth, renounced marriage, and adopted the humble nickname of "Juan Pecador" (John the Sinner). It was there that he began to care for an abandoned elderly couple, housing them and begging for them, thus understanding that his vocation lay in the service of the poor.

He then settled in Jerez de la Frontera, where he devoted himself body and soul to the prisoners of the Royal Prison (Cárcel Real), to convalescents, and to the incurable sick who had been left to their own devices. In January 1574, faced with a severe epidemic in Jerez, he founded the Hospital of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candlemas), dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to offer dignified and hygienic care.

Having heard of the work of Saint John of God in Granada, Juan traveled there in 1574 to join this hospital family. He adopted the rule of the Hospitaller Order and affiliated his hospital in Jerez with it in 1576. His example attracted many companions whom he trained according to the statutes of John of God. He expanded his work by founding or reforming other hospitals in Medina Sidonia, Arcos de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and Villamartín.

At the request of the Archbishop of Seville, Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro, Juan Grande took on the delicate and controversial task of reorganizing and consolidating the many small, inefficient hospitals in Jerez in order to improve the quality of care provided to the poor.

Juan Grande led a life of extreme austerity, sleeping on the floor and contenting himself with frugal food. His charity extended to all: he helped prostitutes leave the streets by providing them with anonymous dowries to marry, and cared for more than 300 Spanish soldiers who had survived the sacking of Cadiz by the English.

In 1600, a terrible plague epidemic ravaged Jerez de la Frontera. Juan Grande spent himself without counting the cost for the plague victims. Contaminated by the disease, he fell ill on May 26 and died on Saturday, June 3, 1600, in his cell at the Hospital de la Candelaria, offering himself as a victim for the end of the epidemic.

The cause for the beatification of Juan Grande was introduced on October 4, 1667. He was declared venerable by Pope Pius VI on May 3, 1775.

He was beatified on November 13, 1853, by Pope Pius IX.

In 1995, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized the authenticity of a miracle attributed to his intercession: the unexplained healing on February 24, 1932, of a Felician nun from Krakow (Poland), Sister Maria Regina Hoeflich, who was suffering from acute purulent otomastoiditis on the right side complicated by diabetes.

Juan Grande Román was canonized on June 2, 1996, by Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, during the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. In 1986, he had been proclaimed patron of the Diocese of Asidonia-Jerez (Jerez de la Frontera). His relics are venerated in the San Juan Grande diocesan sanctuary in Jerez.

The spirituality of Juan Grande rests on an intimate union between contemplation and action. His life of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was so intense that his brothers sometimes had to pull him from the chapel so that he would go and rest. His nickname of "John the Sinner" testifies to his profound humility. For him, the service of the poor and the sick was not a simple philanthropy, but a "matter of conscience" and a direct encounter with Christ. His legacy endures through the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God and the modern medical institutions that bear his name, perpetuating his vision of humane, dignified, and charitable healthcare assistance.