The people who worked on San Hipólito Hospital were prisoners, captured pirates and slaves, which included the indigenous.
[1] Because of Renaissance ideas and the recovery of old texts, the information about different mental illnesses began to expand.
In New Spain during the XVI and 17th centuries, hospitals functioned with little money, because at that time the Spanish Crown did not support them.
To have access to medicine, clean clothes and food, they had to collect alms on the richer areas from the faithful, who gave money to feel satisfaction and have a place in heaven.
Brother Bernardino Alvarez (1514–1584) promoted the formation of a congregation to take care of the ill, founding the hospital in 1569.
The Brothers remained as a congregation until 1700, when the petition of Hipolitos and Pope Innocence XII gave them the possibility of making chastity votes, poorness, obedience and hospitality under the rule of San Agustín .
[5] The San Hipólito Brothers’ order was important for New Spain because seven hospitals were under their charge, six of which were founded by money obtained from alms.
He did his training prior making his vows before being a member of the religious institute on El Escorial Monastery, where he finalized his novitiate in September 22, 1531.
During the next years, he opened other hospitals, one in Puebla that was named “San Roque” which was for female psychiatric patients, another one in Jalapa, Veracruz called “La Concepción”, and one in Acapulco, Guerrero.
The information about his death is nonexistent but it is known that today there is a tribute to the priest on the Hospital de Jesús.
The hospital was founded with the purpose of taking care of the people who suffered, such as poor and mentally ill that were on the streets.
The hospital continued like that for a while until 1905, when the building was partially destroyed because the government made a new street called Heroes.