John of Capestrano.

23rd October
Feast day: 23rd October (non-obligatory)
Position: priest (OFM)
Death: 1456
Patron: Vienna, Brno; lawyers, military chaplains
Attributes: Franciscan, book, cross, banner with the name Jesus or the monogram IHS
LIFE

He came from Capestrano, studied law, and began his career serving the Neapolitan king. He went from a very high position to prison, where he experienced a conversion. In 1416, he joined the Franciscans, was ordained a priest, and was commissioned to establish stricter Franciscan monasteries. He became a renowned preacher and captivated listeners throughout Central Europe. He came to Brno, where he preached, performed miracles, and founded a monastery. His time in our country, however, was not considered successful. His most significant work is deemed to have been his service in the army, in which he was in Belgrade at the age of 70 when the Turkish army was defeated despite being outnumbered. He soon died from exhaustion after treating a dying commander infected with the plague and delivering a final speech to the troops in Ilok.
LIFE STORY FOR MEDITATION

He was supposedly named after John the Baptist, and some sources state that he was born on the feast day of John the Baptist. His father was a German nobleman, and his mother an Italian.

Throughout his life, John retained an extraordinary memory and a choleric temperament.. This helped him to achieve success. He studied law at the most prestigious law faculty in Perugia, then became a legal advisor at the royal court in Naples. The king then sent him back to Perugia to serve as a judge. He was principled in matters of justice and, at 26, became the city’s governor, and at 28, the head of government with the highest military authority. Shortly after getting married, he was sent to intervene in a dispute during the fighting between Perugia and Malatesta in Rimini in 1413. Then the Apulian king Ladislaus was overthrown, and Jan, as a royal official, was imprisoned in Brufa Castle, where he was threatened with death. He realized the transience of all earthly happiness and the fickleness of human favor. After an audacious attempt to escape, he was reportedly chained to a wall with his feet in the water. On the third day, he had a vision of St. Francis of Assisi, after which he decided to join his order if he was released. He also offered to give up all his property for this. He experienced suffering, which, in conjunction with a mystical experience, led him to change his life. During a night of spiritual struggle, he lost his hair. He then recognized and accepted that it was God’s will for him to abandon all worldly things and serve God exclusively.

After his release, he considered it most essential to reconcile with his enemies and then reach an agreement with his wife to dissolve their marriage, which he claimed had never been consummated. His wife was reluctant to accept his proposals, as he was also persuading her to choose a life without marriage. She finally remarried after around 10 years.

In 1416, Jan joined the Order of Friars Minor Observant, which strictly adhered to the rule. He reportedly began his novitiate at Monteripido, having publicly renounced his past career when he rode through Perugia, where he was most highly regarded, sitting backward on an ass like a fool.

After his conversion, Jan frequently approached the sacrament of reconciliation, but did not dare to receive the Eucharist. He later considered this refusal of the immense offer of God to be one of the most serious sins of his life. During his novitiate, he gained clarity and peace of mind. Aware of the brevity of his life, he became perpetually active in his desire to do much for the glory of God.

He found a reliable friend in Bernardino of Siena, who guided him to become a model friar. He deepened his theological knowledge and was ordained a priest around 1420. Like the popular missionary Bernardin, whom he accompanied on his travels, he also began to preach publicly with great zeal and success. However, he would often return in tears, feeling that the praise he received from others was too great, given how he believed he had responded to God’s call. Following the example of St. Francis, he walked barefoot and wore only a simple religious robe.

He was soon entrusted with establishing stricter Franciscan monasteries and, after 1425, undertook many journeys throughout Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Central Europe, as the Pope had commissioned him to carry out missions beyond the Alps. He also preached in Bohemia and Moravia. His work in Brno is particularly well documented, as he visited the city two or three times. He first came to Brno from Vienna at the end of July 1451. He performed many miracles here, including the healing of the deaf, dumb, lame and blind. More important, however, was the healing of souls, the genuine conversions. The greatest miracle —the resurrection of Gabriel from Staré Brno —occurred on 1 August. The most significant number of healings was recorded on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (15 August). People came to hear his sermons in ever greater numbers before the chapter church of St. Petra. A later external pulpit called “Kapistránka” was built here to commemorate his work.

After the Feast of the Assumption, Jan Kapistran left for Olomouc, where he stayed until 5 September. He then returned to Brno via Drásov, where he founded a monastery.

Other cities in our country where he preached include Znojmo, Jemnice, and Jihlava; in Bohemia, Krumlov, Plzeň, Tachov, and Cheb. He was banned from entering Prague. The main reason given is that he converted a large number of Hussites. He allegedly returned to Moravia once more on his way from Wrocław in 1454. The secret of Jan’s charm, with which he brought souls to Christ, is said to be his gentle smile, sensitivity, fresh mind, and ascetic life full of love, authentic to the gospel he preached.

The most significant campaign of John  Capestrano is considered to be the one for which he became the patron saint of all military chaplains (10 February 1984). At the age of 70, he became actively involved in defending Belgrade and the entire Christian world.

In 1453, the Turks seized Constantinople and planned to eliminate Christians in many regions. Pope Nicholas V, therefore, called on Christian princes to launch a crusade against the Turks. For the same purpose, Emperor Frederick III. convened a further diet in Frankfurt. At the request of the Bishop of Siena, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Jan Kapistránsky joined the activities to defend Christianity against the Turks. At the Frankfurt assembly, he tried to encourage the princes to respond to the papal call and stop the impending Turkish invasion. He traveled through Germany and Poland to the Hungarian capital, Buda (now Budapest). At the council held there, he received a cross from the papal envoy, Cardinal Karvalaja, and another from Pope Calixtus III, with a mandate to recruit for the crusading army against the Turks. The young Hungarian king Ladislaus entrusted the supreme command to the nobleman János Hunyadi, who accompanied Jan Kapistrán during his campaign. When Sultan Mehmed II approached Belgrade with a massive Turkish army supported by a naval fleet on the Danube, Hunyadi awaited him with a sword on the right flank and Jan Kapistran with a cross on the left. He maintained discipline in the army, blessed the flags, gave blessings, made admonitions, encouraged, and maintained order.

After the Turks captured the outer walls and attacked the inner walls, Hunyadi lost hope of victory because of their superior numbers. Still, Kapistrán began to wave the banner from the highest point and cry out the battle cry “Jesus”. Encouraged by him, the soldiers remained on the walls and, with renewed energy, threw hot tar into the attackers’ ditches and drove them back with fire. During the July retreat, Capestrano pursued the Turks with his army to their camp beyond the Sava River and contributed significantly to their defeat.

All Christians attributed the famous victory to the merits and prayers of the seventy-year-old Capuchin friar Kapistran, and his name was spoken with gratitude throughout Europe.

After the battle, Jan Kapistránský cared for the plague-stricken Jan Hunyadi until his death on 11 August, after which he was struck down with a severe fever. Despite his great exhaustion, he was taken to Ilok on the Danube in Croatia, where he encouraged the soldiers who were on alert in case of a further attack by the Turks. He then died on 23rd October, and he died with the name of Jesus on his lips.

In 1514, Pope Leo X permitted the veneration of John Capestrano, but only within the diocese of Sulmona. Pope Gregory XV. expanded it in 1622 to the level of beatification, and Pope Innocent X reportedly confirmed this level of veneration on the 19th. 12. 1650. John of  Capestrano was canonized on 16. 10. 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII without a canonization bull. This entry was made in 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII.

He was included in the Roman calendar in 1891, with his feast day celebrated on the 28th. 3rd. During the post-conciliar revision, this memorial was moved to the date of death, the 23rd. October.