BROTHERS HOSPITALLERS OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD (FATEBENEFRATELLI). - Religious order, founded by St. John of God, who in 1537 founded a hospital for the poor in Granada and gathered around himself some companions in the apostolate. After the death of the Saint (1550) the Institute grew in numbers and, having founded hospitals in Spain and Italy, was approved as a Congregation by St. Pius V (1571, bull Licet ex debito) under the Rule of St. Augustine with its own constitutions and with the faculty of having some members as priests. In addition to the three common vows, the Fatebenefratelli take the vow of hospitality. In 1586, by Sixtus V (bull Etsi pro debito), the Congregation was elevated to an Order, then brought back to a simple Congregation by Clement VIII in 1592 (bull Ex omnibus), and again elevated to an Order by Paul V (1611 and 1617, brief Romanus Pontifex). From 1608 to 1867 the Order was divided into two distinct congregations, of Spain and of Italy, with their own Constitutions and superiors general.
It spread rapidly across all continents: after a century it already counted 16 religious provinces, 2,595 brothers and 262 hospitals with 6,893 beds, in which 113,345 sick people were treated annually. In Italy there were six provinces and 86 hospitals.
Religious of eminent virtue and marked charity, of great value in nursing, medicine, surgery, chemistry and also missionary work, they raised the Order to high prestige, making it greatly deserving both for the care of the sick in its own hospitals and for that given to poor populations in villages and countryside. During 12 epidemics in Spain, from 1581 to 1832, 200 brothers died as victims of their apostolate. In the Spanish navy and army, the O. constituted almost a corps of military health service, officially appointed as doctors, surgeons and nurses of the various strongholds. From 1580 to about 1779 some 300 brothers took part, as medical personnel, in 33 expeditions to the Americas. In Italy, in France, in Austria, in Germany and in other nations, including non-European ones, they everywhere provided works of fraternal assistance to soldiers wounded in wars, and to those infected during epidemics. With their methods of care they made no small contribution to hospital progress, especially in the treatment of the mentally ill and of rachitic and scrofulous children.
The French Revolution, the political and military upheavals, the suppressions of the last century, in Europe and in America, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-39, and the Second World War inflicted on the Order many losses of persons and hospitals. Soon, however, it regained its former vigor, began to spread again and founded new hospitals and gave impetus to new works under the guidance of men tempered in virtue and sacrifice, such as Giovanni di Dio and Magallon in France, Benedict Menni (v.) in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, Giovanni Maria Alfieri, the soul of the restoration of the Order. Likewise, many houses were lost in Eastern Europe because of the attitude and legislation hostile to the Church. In 1951 the Order counted 2,065 professed members, divided into 16 religious provinces and 5 vice-provinces with 155 houses in Europe, 27 in America, 3 in Africa, 1 in Asia, 2 in Australia. Recently the Fatebenefratelli have also gone to Japan and Indochina.
Their activity is carried out in hospitals, clinics, mental asylums, leprosariums, homes for blind boys, the physically and mentally disabled, hospices for the elderly, institutes for epileptics and for adult deficients, night shelters for the poor and for homeless workers, rehabilitation homes for minors, homes for orphaned minor workers.
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Gabriele Rusotto