This particular John lived in the 500s in part of what is now Great Britain. He lived happily in a small cell, near which he constructed a private chapel. Next to the chapel, John tended an orchard, and within this orchard, John lovingly planted several laurel trees!

In time, these laurel trees provided John with shade, so that he could sit underneath them and read and write. When this quiet, laurel-loving man died, he was buried there–beneath these very trees!

Here’s how he became an on-the-Calendar Saint: After John died, people (maybe one, maybe two at first) who were ill would come to this spot under the laurels where John was buried. Perhaps they too found moments of peace beneath these trees. And by asking John to ask God for help with their illness (who knows but what the very planting of those trees was the very help they needed?!), many found themselves  healed! These miracles eventually received sufficient attention in Rome, and I for one am glad John’s story has been kept alive!