Saint John of Capistrano
Priest
- Feast Day
- October 23
- Life
- 1386–1456
- Canonized
- 1690
- Order
- Order of Friars Minor (Observant Franciscans)
- Born
- Capestrano, Abruzzi, Kingdom of Naples
Giovanni da Capestrano was born at Capestrano in the Abruzzi on 24 June 1386. Educated at Perugia in civil and canon law, he was appointed governor (Podestà) of Perugia in 1412. Imprisoned during the war between Perugia and the Malatesta of Rimini, he experienced a profound conversion and on his release entered the Observant Franciscans at Perugia in 1416, where his novice-master was Saint Bernardine of Siena.
Ordained priest in 1420, he became with Bernardine the great preacher of fifteenth-century Italy, conducting itinerant missions for nearly forty years across the cities of Italy, Austria, Bohemia, Bavaria, Hungary, and Poland, and serving Popes Eugene IV, Nicholas V and Callistus III as preacher, papal legate, and inquisitor. He was instrumental in the reconciliation of the Greek and Latin Churches at the Council of Florence (1439) and in the implementation of Bernardine's reform within the Friars Minor.
In 1456 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople (1453), advanced toward Belgrade, the gateway of Christian Europe. The seventy-year-old Capistrano gathered an army of crusaders, mostly peasants from Hungary, Croatia, and Poland, and joined forces with the Hungarian general János Hunyadi. On 22 July 1456 the Christians won a decisive victory in the Siege of Belgrade. Pope Callistus III, learning of the victory, ordered the noon ringing of bells throughout Christendom in thanksgiving, a usage still observed in some churches. Capistrano died, exhausted from the campaign and from plague, at Ilok on 23 October 1456. Pope Alexander VIII canonized him in 1690. His Optional Memorial is observed on 23 October.
John of Capistrano stands at one of the great hinges of European history, the defense of Belgrade. His preaching career remains an example of the integration of strict religious observance, popular catechesis, theological learning, and public engagement that characterized the late medieval Observant reform.
Patronages
military chaplains · judges · jurists
Catholic Churches Named After Saint John of Capistrano
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint John of Capistrano's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. John the Evangelist — Logan, KS
- Saint John the Baptist — South Bend, IN
- St. John the Baptist Parish — Chinsali
- St. John the Baptist Parish — Bulawayo
- St. John Vianney Mission — Esigodini
- St. John Baptist - Birunduma
- Church of St. John the Baptist, Sungai Siput — Sungai Siput, PERAK
- St John's
- St. John the Baptist Catholic Church — Prentice, WI
- St. John's
- Sts. John and Paul Church (St. Mary Magdalene Parish) — New Maryland, NB
- John the Baptist - Bonnyrigg/Edensor Park — Bonnyrigg Heights, NSW
- Saint John’s Parish — Barraba, NSW
- St John the Baptist, Lismore — Lismore, VIC
- St John's, Skipton — Skipton, VIC
- St John the Apostle. Goolwa — Goolwa, SA
- St John Mary Vianney Church — Gnowangerup, WA
- St John's Church — Rangeway, WA
- St Johns Catholic Church — Iola, KS
- St John the Baptist Catholic Church — Tapanui
Sources