St.John of Capistrano
Posted on October 24, 2018 by admin No comments
Born: 24 June 1386 Capestrano, Abruzzi, Kingdom of Naples
Died: 23 October 1456 (aged 70) Ilok, Syrmia, Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with Hungary
Venerated: in Roman Catholic Church
Canonized: 1690 or 1724, Rome by either Pope Alexander VIII or Pope Benedict XIII
Feast: 23 October; 28 March (General Roman Calendar, 1890–1969) Patronage Jurists, Belgrade and Hungary
Saint John of Capistrano (Italian: San Giovanni da Capistrano, Hungarian: Kapisztrán János, Polish: Jan Kapistran, Croatian: Ivan Kapistran, Serbian: Јован Капистран, Jovan Kapistran) (24 June 1386 – 23 October 1456) was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the Italian town of Capistrano, Abruzzo. 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 with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.
Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of jurists and military chaplains, as well as the namesake of the Franciscan missions San Juan Capistrano in Southern California and San Juan Capistrano in San Antonio, Texas.
Early life
As was the custom of this time, John is denoted by the village of Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, in the 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.
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 Malatestas in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but Malatesta threw him in prison. It was during this imprisonment that he began to think more seriously about his soul. He decided eventually to give up the world and become a Franciscan Friar, owing to a dream he had in which he saw St. Francis and was warned by the saint to enter the Franciscan Order. Having never consummated the marriage, he asked and received permission from his wife to annul the marriage and started studying theology with Bernardino of Siena.
Friar and preacher
Together with James of the Marches, John entered the Order of Friars Minor at Perugia on 4 October 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 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, John was effective in northern and central Europe-in German states of Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and 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.
Anti-Jewish incitement
John was known as the “Scourge of the Jews” for his inciting of antisemitic violence. Like some other Franciscans, he ranged over a broad area on both sides of the Alps, and his preaching to mass open-air congregations often led to pogroms. In 1450 the Franciscan “Jew-baiter” arranged a forced disputation at Rome with a certain Gamaliel called “Synagogæ Romanæ magister”. Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel their entire Jewish population, and in Silesia, then Kingdom of Bohemia, at Wroclaw many were burned at the stake.
Reformer
When he was not preaching, John was writing tracts against heresy of every kind. This facet of his 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 Bernardine of Siena in the reform of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interests of a more rigorous discipline in the Franciscan communities. Like Bernardine, 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 both acquitted by the Commission of Cardinals appointed to judge the accusations.
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. During the period of his nunciature, John visited all parts of the Empire, preaching and combating the heresy of the Hussites; he also visited Poland at the request of Casimir IV Jagiellon. 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 talks impossible between the representatives of Rome and the Bohemians, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.
John, in spite of this restless life, found time to work both during the lifetime of his mentor, Bernardine, and afterwards on the reform of the Order of Friars Minor. He also upheld, in his writings, speeches and sermons, theories of papal supremacy rather than the theological wranglings of councils (see Conciliar Movement). 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.
The soldier saint
After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmed II, threatened Christian Europe. That following year Pope Callixtus III sent John, who was already aged seventy, to preach a Crusade against the invading Turks at the Imperial Diet of Frankfurt. Gaining little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his efforts in Hungary. John succeeded in gathering together enough troops to march onto Belgrade, which at that time was under siege by Turkish forces. In the summer of 1456, these troops, together with John Hunyadi, managed to raise the siege of Belgrade; the old and frail friar actually led his own contingent into battle. This feat earned him the moniker of ‘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 at the nearby town of Ilok, Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with Hungary (now a Croatian border town on the Danube).
Sainthood and feast day
The year of John of 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 General Roman Calendar and assigned to 28 March. In 1969, Saint Pope Paul VI moved his feast day to 23 October, the day of his death. Where Mass and the Office are said according to the 1962 Roman Missal and its concomitant calendar, his feast day is still kept on March 28.
Prayer to St.John of Capistrano
Lord, you raised up Saint John of Capistrano to give your people comfort in their trials. May your Church enjoy unending peace and be secure in your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Novena to St.John of Capistrano
(Please recite this novena for 9 days)
In the Name of the Father…
R. Amen
I will rejoice in the Lord,
R. And I will joy in God my Jesus
The Lord God is my strength. Rejoice to God our helper,
R. Sing aloud to the God of Jacob.
Glory be to the Father… As it was in the beginning…
I will rejoice in the Lord,
R. And I will joy in God my Jesus
The Lord God is my strength. The Lord is my strength and my praise,
R. And He is become salvation to me.
He is my God, and I will glorify Him.
R.The Lord is a man of war, almighty is His Name.
The Lord Who breaketh battles, the Lord is His Name. They sang to Thy holy Name, O Lord,
R. And they praised Thy victorious Hand.
St. John Capistran called upon the most high Sovereign,
R. When the enemies assaulted him on every side, And the great and holy God heard him.
O Lord, look mercifully upon our penances,
R. Regard with mercy our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, that through the intercession of St. John Capistran, Thy confessor, they may break the snares of our enemies and establish us securely in Thy safe keeping.
Mother benign of our redeeming Lord,
R. Star of the sea and portal of the skies, Unto thy fallen people help afford, Fallen, but striving anew to rise. Thou who didst once, while wondering worlds adored, Bear thy Creator, Virgin then as now, O by thy holy joy at Gabriel’s word, Pity the sinners who before thee bow. Amen.
O God, Who through blessed John Capistran didst enable Thy faithful people to triumph over the enemies of the Cross by the power of the most holy Name of Jesus grant, we beseech Thee, that by his merits and intercession we may overcome the snares of our malicious and spiritual enemies, keep Thy Church in perpetual peace, grant us the special graces we now implore:
(Mention Special Intentions)
And may we be found worthy to receive from Thee the crown of justice. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the Name of the Father…Amen
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