John of Capistrano

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"Capistrano" redirects here. For other uses, see Capistrano (disambiguation).
Saint

John of Capistrano

O.F.M.
Jurists, Belgrade and Hungary

John of Capistrano, OFM (

Crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi
.

Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of

missions, one in Southern California and the other in San Antonio
, Texas.

Early life

As was the custom of this time, John is denoted by the village of

Abruzzi region, Kingdom of Naples. His father had come to Italy with the Angevin court of Louis I of Anjou, titular King of Naples. He studied law at the University of Perugia.[1]

In 1412, King Ladislaus 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 the House of Malatesta in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but the Malatestas threw him in prison. It was during this imprisonment that he began to study theology. When he was released, he decided to become a Franciscan friar,[2] citing a dream where Saint Francis of Assisi ordered him to enter the Order. He had married before the war, but asserted that the marriage was never consummated and received permission to take holy orders.

Friar and preacher

Together with

Bernardine of Siena.[1] He soon gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and orthodoxy,[4]
following the example set by Bernardine. From 1420 onwards, he preached with great effect in numerous cities and eventually became well known. He was ordained in 1425.

Unlike most Italian preachers of

Kingdom of Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the public squares; at Brescia in Italy, he preached to a crowd of 126,000.[1]

Reformer

San Giovanni di Capistrano, by Santi Buglioni c. 1550

When he was not preaching, John was writing tracts against

Cardinals
appointed to judge the accusations.

He was frequently deployed to embassies by Popes

George of Podiebrad, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.[4]

He also worked for the reform of the Order of Friars Minor. He upheld, in his writings, speeches and sermons, theories of

Conciliar Movement).[4] John, together with his teacher, Bernardine, his colleague, James of the Marche, and Albert Berdini of Sarteano, are considered the four great pillars of the Observant reform among the Friars Minor.[5]

Anti-Jewish incitement

John's legacy has been made controversial by his contributions to antisemitism in Europe. Known as the "Scourge of the Jews",[6] he saw it as an act of love to preach against Judaism because it did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. In 1450, the Franciscan "Jew-baiter" arranged a forced disputation at Rome with a certain Gamaliel called "Synagogæ Romanæ magister".[7][8][9] Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel their entire Jewish populations.[10][11] However, “[t]hat in dealing with heretics and Jews he transgressed established bounds and thereby failed against Christian charity is a thought practically unknown to contemporaries. He was at times censured as impractical, but never as uncharitable or inhuman. Even Doering, one of his severest critics, finds nothing to blame in Capistrano’s behavior toward the Jews.”[12]

The Soldier Priest

Ombrellino at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano
.
Reconstructed Coat of arms of John of Capistrano

After the

Crusade against the invading Ottomans at the Imperial Diet of Frankfurt. Gaining little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his efforts in Hungary. By July 1456, Capistrano managed to raise a large, albeit poorly trained force made up of peasants and local countryside landlords, with which he advanced towards Belgrade which was under siege by Turkish forces. Though poorly equipped they were highly motivated. Capistrano and John Hunyadi
traveled together, though commanding the army separately. Between them, they had gathered around 40,000–50,000 troops altogether.

Hunyadi managed to break the naval blockade on the Danube, and breach the siege, bringing reinforcements and supplies to the city. By some accounts, the peasant soldiers started a spontaneous action, and forced Capistrano and Hunyadi to take advantage of it. Despite Hunyadi's orders to the defenders not to try to loot the Ottoman positions, some of the units crept out from demolished ramparts, took up positions across from the Ottoman line, and began harassing enemy soldiers. Ottoman Sipahis tried without success to disperse the harassing force. As more defenders joined those outside the wall, what began as an isolated incident quickly escalated into a full-scale battle.

John of Capistrano at first tried to order his men back inside the walls, but soon found himself surrounded by about 2,000 peasant levymen. He then began leading them toward the Ottoman rear across the Sava river. At the same time, Hunyadi started a desperate charge out of the fort to take the cannon positions in the Ottoman encampment. In the aftermath of a fierce battle, the Ottomans withdrew and retreated under cover of darkness; the siege was lifted. His involvement led to Capistrano being called "the Soldier Priest". Although he survived the battle, John fell victim to the bubonic plague, which flourished in the unsanitary conditions prevailing among armies of the day. He died on 23 October 1456[3] at the nearby town of Ilok (now a Croatian border town on the Danube).

Sainthood and feast day

The year of John of Capistrano's canonization was liturgically celebrated 16 October 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII. The Bull of Canonization, Rationis Congruit, was published on 4 June 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII.[13]

In 1890, his feast day was included for the first time in the

1962 Roman Missal
and its concomitant calendar, his feast day remains on March 28.

  • Statue of John of Capistrano in Budapest, Hungary
    Statue of John of Capistrano in Budapest, Hungary
  • Painting in St. John of Capistrano Church in Ilok, Croatia, where he was buried
    Painting in St. John of Capistrano Church in Ilok, Croatia, where he was buried
  • Monument in Vienna, near St. Stephen's Cathedral
    Monument in Vienna, near St. Stephen's Cathedral
  • In the Nuremberg Chronicle
    In the Nuremberg Chronicle

Eponym of missions

As a Franciscan reformer preaching simplicity, John became the eponym of two

San Antonio, Texas.[15]

Patron saint

He is the patron saint of military chaplains and jurists.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Hess, Lawrence. "St. John Capistran." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 1 Feb. 2014
  2. ^ a b "St. John Capistrano", Faith ND
  3. ^ a b c "Saint John of Capistrano", Saint of the Day, Franciscan Media
  4. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Alphandéry, Paul Daniel (1911). "Capistrano, Giovanni di". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 275.
  5. ^ American Catholic.org "St. James of the Marche"
  6. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, 1908
  7. ^ Vogelstein and Rieger, "Gesch. der Juden in Rom", 1895, ii. 14
  8. ^ "DISPUTATIONS". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  9. ^ Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel. "DISPUTATIONS AND POLEMICS". jewishvirtuallibrary.org (The Gale Group). Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  10. ^ Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Richard S. Levy, published by ABC-CLIO, 2005, and available here [1]
  11. ^ Will Durant, The Reformation, Simon & Schuster (1957), page 731
  12. ^ Hofer, 'St. John Capistrano', pg. 284
  13. ^ Bullarium Romanum. Vol 22. Benedict XIII (1724-1730). Taurini Ed, 1871. P. 31-36.
  14. ^ ST JOHN OF CAPISTRANO (A.D. 1456) Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved September 13, 2006; Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 106
  15. ^ Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. San Juan Capistrano Mission. 1922. Standard Printing Co., Los Angeles, CA.
  16. ^ Craughwell, Thomas (23 October 2009). "St. John of Capistrano: Patron of Military Chaplains". CatholicMil.org (reprinted from Arlington Catholic Herald). Retrieved 2009-12-28.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. John Capistran". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Further reading

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