THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF GOD The Fourth Centenary

This year is the fourth centenary of the foundation of the Order of St. John of God. Four hundred years ago that saint started his work for the sick and poor by opening a hospital in Granada, to which he brought all the sick and helpless of the city. Gradually his Order has spread throughout the world, and it is now being persecuted in the country that gave it birth. On account of his work for the sick, St. John of God has been declared by the present Pope, Pius XI, patron of nurses and of all associated with the sick. Pope Leo XIII declared him patron of the sick and dying and ordered that his name be inserted in the litany of the dying.
At the House of St. John of God, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, the mother-house of the Irish-English province of the Order of St. John of God, on the feast of St. Patrick, three novices made profession of simple temporary vows. The three newlyprofessed are Bros. Joseph Caffrey (Dublin), Thomas Grainger (Gillingham) and Finbar Murphy (Cork). On the same day, John Lucitt, of Tralee, received the habit of the Order and was admitted to the novitiate, taking the name of Bro. Finian.
On the feast of St. Joseph, four brothers made profession of perpetual vows. The four brothers were Bros. Fintan Bolger (Ferns, Co. Wexford), Alban Grainger (Gillingham, Kent), Stephen O'Regan (Groom, Co. Limerick) and George Larkin (Burnley). Br. Alban's brother had made simple profession only two days previously.
Bro. Fintan and Bro. Alban arc attached to the John Southworth Hostel in Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.W., a hostel for Catholic boys who are homeless and without rela tives in London. Bro. George is at St. Augustine's Colony, Obelisk Park, Black
rock, Co. Dublin. St. Augustine's is designed for the treatment, care and training of mentally deficient boys above school age; it is the only place of its kind in Ireland. Bro. Stephen is attached to the house at Stillorgan, a private hospital for the treatment of mental and nervous diseases.