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St. John of Capistrano
Feastday: October 23
Patron of Jurists
St. John was born at Capistrano, Italy in 1385, the
son of a former German knight in that city. He studied law at the
University of Perugia and practiced as a lawyer in the courts of
Naples. King Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia.
During a war with a neighboring town he was betrayed and imprisoned.
Upon his release he entered the Franciscan community at Perugia
in 1416. He and St. James of the March were fellow students under
St. Bernardine of Siena, who inspired him to institute the devotion
to the holy Name of Jesus and His Mother. John began his brilliant
preaching apostolate with a deacon in 1420. After his ordination
he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary,
Poland, and Russia preaching penance and establishing numerous communities
of Franciscan renewal. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and
Rome, St. John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope
Callistus II to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks.
Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory
in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456. Three
months later he died at Illok, Hungary. His feast day is October
23. He is the patron of jurists.
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