John of Capistrano (
Italian:
Giovanni da Capistrano,
Hungarian:
Kapisztrán János), (
June 24,
1386 –
October 23,
1456), was a
Franciscan priest from
Italy. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and
inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname 'the Soldier Saint' when in 1456 at age 70 he led a
crusade against the invading
Ottoman Empire at the
siege of Belgrade.
Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of
jurists, as well as the namesake of the Franciscan
missions
San Juan Capistrano in
Southern California and
San Juan Capistrano in
San Antonio, Texas.
His zeal against those he believed
heretics and
infidels was unrelenting and sometimes harsh. He was feared and hated by the
Jews.
Early life
As was the custom of this time, Giovanni took his name from his birthplace: the village of
Capestrano, in the
diocese of Sulmona in the
Abruzzi,
Kingdom of Naples. His father had come to Italy with the
Angevin court of
Louis I of Anjou, King of
Naples. He lived at first a wholly secular life, studied law at the
University of Perugia under the legal scholar
Pietro de Ubaldis, married, and became a successful magistrate. In 1412,
Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia, a tumultuous and resentful papal fief held by Ladislas as the pope's
champion, in order to effectively establish public order. When war broke out between Perugia and
Sigismondo Malatesta in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but Malatesta threw him in prison. During the captivity, in despair he put aside his new young wife, never having consummated the marriage, and started studying theology with
St. Bernardine of Siena.
Friar and preacher
Together with
St. James of the Marches, Capistrano entered the
Franciscan order at
Perugia on
October 4,
1416. At once he gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and orthodoxy, following the example set by St. Bernardine. From 1420 onwards he preached with great effect in numerous cities and eventually became well known. Unlike most Italian preachers of
repentance in the 15th century, Giovanni da Capistrano was effective in the north, in
Germany,
Bohemia,
Austria,
Hungary,
Croatia and
Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the
piazzas: at
Brescia he preached to a crowd of 126,000.
Reformer
San Giovanni da Capistrano
When he was not preaching, he was writing tracts against
heresy of every kind. This facet of Giovanni's life is covered in great detail by his early biographers, Nicholas of Fara, Christopher of Varese and Girlamo of Udine. While he was thus evangelizing, he was actively engaged in assisting Bernardino in the reforms of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interests of more rigorous discipline in the Franciscan hierarchy. Like St. Bernardine of Siena, he strongly emphasized devotion to the
Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with that saint, was accused of heresy on this account. In 1429 these Observant friars were called to Rome to answer charges of heresy, and John was chosen by his companions to speak for them. They were all acquitted by the Commission of
Cardinals. He was frequently deployed to embassies by Popes
Eugene IV and
Nicholas V. In 1439 he was sent as legate to
Milan and
Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the
Antipope Felix V; in 1446 he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic
nuncio to Austria. Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel the entire Jewish population, and at Breslau some were burned at the stake. During the period of his nunciature, John visited all parts of the Empire, preaching and combatting the heresy of the
Hussites; he also visited Poland at the request of
Casimir IV. As legate, or inquisitor, he prosecuted the last
Fraticelli of
Ferrara, the
Jesuati of
Venice, the
Crypto-Jews of
Sicily,
Moldavia and
Poland, and, above all, the
Hussites of
Germany,
Hungary and
Bohemia; his aim in the last case was to make conferences impossible between the representatives of
Rome and the
Bohemians, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.
Statue of János Kapisztrán in
Budapest, Hungary
The soldier Saint
After the
Fall of Constantinople, when
Mehmed II was threatening Vienna and Rome,
Pope Callixtus III sent him at the age of seventy, to preach a
Crusade against the invading
Turks at the Diet of
Frankfurt in 1454, and he succeeded in gathering together enough troops to march onto
Belgrade, which at that time was under siege by
Mehmed II. In the summer of 1456, these troops, together with
John Hunyadi, managed to raise the
siege of Belgrade, with the old and frail Capistrano actually leading his own contingent into battle. This feat earned him the
moniker of 'the Soldier Priest', and although he survived the battle, Capistrano fell victim to the
bubonic plague, which flourished in the unsanitary conditions prevailing among armies of the day. He died at nearby
Ilok,
Kingdom of Hungary-
Croatia (which is now a border town between
Croatia and
Serbia across the
Danube from
Bácspalánka).
St. John Capistrano, in spite of this restless life, found time to work, both in the lifetime of his mentor St. Bernardine, and after, at the reform of the order of the minor Franciscans. He also upheld, in his writings, speeches and sermons, sensible theories of
papal supremacy rather than the theological wranglings of councils (see
Conciliar Movement).
Sainthood and feast day
The year of St. John Capistrano's
canonization is variously given as 1690, by
Pope Alexander VIII or 1724 by
Pope Benedict XIII. In 1890, his feast day was included for the first time in the
Roman Catholic calendar of saints and assigned to
28 March.
[ Retrieved September 13, 2006; Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 106)] In 1969,
Pope Paul VI moved his feast day to
23 October, the day of his death.
Traditionalist Catholics
commemorate his
feast day on
28 March, as in the Church's calendar from 1890 to 1969.
Namesake
As a Franciscan reformer preaching simplicity, Capistrano became the namesake of two Spanish
missions founded by the Franciscans in the north of the then-Spanish Americas:
Mission San Juan Capistrano in today's
Southern California and
Mission San Juan Capistrano just outside the city center of today's
San Antonio in Texas.
[Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. San Juan Capistrano Mission. 1922. Standard Printing Co., Los Angeles, CA.] See also
