A native of the kingdom of Leon in Spain, St. John embraced in his own country the austere order of the Barefooted Observantine Franciscans. Being sent by the authority of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide to preach the faith in the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, he discharged himself with such great zeal that the Mahometans cast him into a dungeon loaded with chains. The holy confessor suffered with constancy the most cruel scourgings and other inhuman torments and consummated his martyrdom by fire.