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 III 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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