The fifth painting in the series, following the order in which they were hung, portrays the decision by Juan Ciudad to devote his life to God. In 1533 he arrived in Gibraltar, where he sold books but after some time he decided to return to Granada. On the road from Gibraltar to Granada an event took place which has no historical basis but is of great symbolic importance in explaining the origin of the Order of Hospitallers. Fray Antonio de Govea describes it as follows:
"... Our Lord appeared to him on the road as a barefoot, ill-treated child. Feeling sorry for him, the saint took off the sandals he was wearing and gave them to the boy. As he could not walk with them, he gave them back to the saint and persuaded him to put them on. Saint John of God then lifted the child onto his shoulders and carried him along the road. After walking some way the saint felt thirsty and tired from carrying the child on his back, and said that they should stop a while because he wanted to have a drink. The child he was carrying asked him to look round and showed him an open pomegranate, telling him to look at it. He said that Granada was to be a cross because there was a cross marked in the pomegranate (granada) he had shown him. The child then disappeared. And Saint John understood that God's will was that he should return to Granada, which he did."
ANTONIO GOUVEA (Bishop of Cirene): Historia de la vida y muerte del glorioso San Juan de Dios, fundador de la religión de la hospitalidad de los pobres enfermos, Madrid, printed by Melchor Alegre, 1669, pp.
Today the arms of the Order of Hospitallers feature an open pomegranate with a cross on it. In Sarabia's painting the event is shown in two sequential views. The first is the scene in which John is carrying the child on his shoulders, while holding a bundle of books and prints in his left hand, alluding to the time he spent as a bookseller in Gibraltar. The second, shown in the foreground, is the moment when the saint stops to rest and the child appears, showing him the open pomegranate with the cross.
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