LIGHT FROM THE LOWLY.

Series VI.

ST. JOHN OF GOD, BOOKSELLER.

I.

In the adventurous life of this glorious saint, shepherd, soldier, labourer, bookseller, and founder of an Order, as he was, booksellers will find many things worthy of imitation. John was born on the 8th of March, 1495, in Montemayor in Portugal, in the archdiocese of Evora. His father, Andrew Ciudad, and his mother, whose name is unknown, though poor, reared him up in all the exercises of piety during the few years he was with them before they lost him. This event occurred thus: A person representing himself as an ecclesiastic happened to get lodging in his father's house, and during conversation spoke so highly of the country about Madrid, that, when leaving, John made up his mind to follow him by stealth to the capital of Spain. He left home, indeed, but his expectation was not fulfilled, for the traveller abandoned him in the village of Oropesa, where some compassionate people took pity on the boy and got him into the service of Francis, the Count de Oropesa's chief shepherd.

In the meantime his mother, tired of seeking him to no purpose, fell sick and died of grief in twenty days after she had lost him. His father, no less afflicted on his account, after the death of his wife, retired to Lisbon, where he ended his days in the habit of St. Francis.