St John of Capistrano: Life, Belgrade, Prayer and Feast Day

St John of Capistrano (1386-1456) was an Italian lawyer and governor who, after a spell in prison, became a Franciscan friar, a disciple of St Bernardine of Siena, and one of the great preachers of the fifteenth century. Sent by the popes across Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland and Hungary, he spent his last strength raising the crusade that broke the Turkish siege of Belgrade in 1456, beside the Hungarian general John Hunyadi, and died a few months later. In the calendar of 1962 his feast falls on 28 March; here is his life, the victory of Belgrade, his death and relics, and the prayers of his Mass in the Missal of 1962.

Who was St John of Capistrano?

John was born in 1386 at Capistrano, a small town of the Abruzzi, then part of the kingdom of Naples. His father was a soldier from beyond the Alps, French or German, the sources disagree, who had settled there after serving King Louis I and married an Italian wife.

He studied law at Perugia with such success that the Breviary says King Ladislaus of Naples, for his great knowledge of law, set him over several cities. Butler adds that in 1412 he was made governor of Perugia, and that he married the daughter of one of its leading citizens. During the war between Perugia and the Malatesta he was taken prisoner and thrown into chains; the Breviary says he was "wonderfully delivered", and the imprisonment became the occasion of his conversion.

The governor who became a friar

He resolved to leave the world. How he was freed from his marriage, Butler admits, "is not altogether clear". A famous story, which Butler gives only as "it is said", tells that he rode through Perugia on a donkey, facing the tail, with a paper hat on his head on which his sins were written, pelted by the children, and so presented himself at the friary of the Friars Minor. It was 1416, and he was thirty. His novice-master tried him with the harshest humiliations, judging that a man so used to command needed it; John persevered and was grateful for it all his life. He had not yet even made his first Communion.

He was ordained priest in 1420. He went barefoot, slept three or four hours a night, wore a hair shirt constantly, and studied theology under St Bernardine of Siena, with St James of the Marches as his fellow student. From Bernardine he took, says the Breviary, the two loves of his preaching: the most holy Name of Jesus and the Mother of God. He refused the bishopric of L'Aquila.

The preacher of Europe

He preached through nearly the whole of Italy, at a time of political chaos and moral decay, when three claimants disputed the papacy. His biographers speak of a hundred thousand hearers at one sermon; Butler calls that impossible, but says the evidence of his success is good. "The throng of people at his sermons was so great," wrote one of them, "that it might be thought that the apostolic times were revived."

The popes used him for every hard task. Martin V named him inquisitor against the heretical sect of the Fraticelli; he drafted the statutes of reform adopted by the general chapter of his order at Assisi in 1430; he worked with St Bernardine for the Franciscan Observance and supported the reform of the Franciscan nuns inspired by St Colette. At the Council of Florence, the Breviary says, he "shone like a sun" and helped bring the Armenians back to Catholic unity. Nicholas V made him inquisitor general in Italy.

In 1451, at the request of the Emperor Frederick III, Nicholas V sent him as nuncio to the German lands, to bring heretics back to the faith and princes to concord. He set out for Vienna with twelve friars. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the future Pius II, describes his arrival: priests and people came out to meet him with relics, "as though Peter or Paul or one of the other apostles were journeying there", bringing their sick to his feet.

For six years, says the Breviary, he laboured in the German lands and the neighbouring provinces; Butler names Bavaria, Saxony and Poland. He worked above all against the Hussites and other sects. Cochlaeus of Nuremberg recorded how those who saw him there described him: "a man small of body, withered, emaciated, nothing but skin and bone, but cheerful, strong and strenuous in labour". He slept in his habit, rose before dawn, said his Office, celebrated Mass, then preached in Latin through an interpreter.

Butler does not hide that his zeal as an inquisitor against the Hussites has been severely criticized; he adds that John was merciful to the repentant.

The miracles of St John of Capistrano

The Breviary speaks of the "frequency of his miracles" and of the multitudes brought back to the Church "by the truth of his teaching and the light of his miracles". Wherever he went, his companions recorded cures; he laid his hands on the sick, prayed over them, and touched them with a relic of St Bernardine, to whom he attributed every wonder. Butler notes that the zeal of his companions in publishing these accounts later did his memory some harm. After his death, the Breviary says, God confirmed his glory by many miracles, which were examined and approved for his canonization.

The siege of Belgrade, 1456

When Constantinople fell to the Turks, John's mission changed: he was called to rally the defence of Christendom. Pope Callistus III, "at his urging above all", says the Breviary, decided to send crusaders, and John went through Hungary and the neighbouring lands, preaching and writing to the princes, until, the Breviary says, seventy thousand Christians had taken the cross.

In 1456 the Turks laid siege to Belgrade. John, in counsel with the great Hungarian general John Hunyadi, led to the city the troops he had raised himself. Animated by his prayers and his example in the field, and guided by Hunyadi's experience, the garrison won an overwhelming victory, and the siege was lifted; the Breviary counts a hundred and twenty thousand Turks slain or put to flight. When the news reached Rome on 6 August, Callistus III dedicated the solemnity of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, on that day, to the perpetual memory of the victory.

The Collect of his feast gives the Church's reading of that victory: God made His faithful triumph over the enemies of the Cross "by the power of the most holy Name of Jesus".

How did St John of Capistrano die?

The thousands of unburied bodies around Belgrade brought pestilence. It killed Hunyadi first, and then John himself, worn out by years of labour and penance and by the strain of the siege. Many great men came to visit him on his sickbed; he urged them to defend the faith, and died a holy death on 23 October 1456. His death is today generally placed at Ilok (in Hungarian Újlak), on the Danube, then in the kingdom of Hungary and now in Croatia; the Breviary names the place Villacum, and Butler wrote Villach.

What happened to the relics of St John of Capistrano?

What became of his body in the troubled centuries after his death is uncertain, and the accounts we have found contradict one another; we will not repeat any of them as fact.

When was St John of Capistrano canonized?

The Breviary says that Alexander VIII enrolled him among the saints in 1690; Butler, like the Catholic Encyclopedia, gives 1724, the date usually given for the publication of the bull of canonization. Both dates refer to the same canonization. Leo XIII, in 1890, two hundred years after it, extended his Office and Mass to the whole Church and fixed his feast on 28 March.

The prayer of St John of Capistrano (Missal of 1962)

His Mass is proper, Ego autem in Domino gaudebo: "But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength" (Habacuc iii. 18-19). The Gospel tells how Christ sent the Twelve "to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick" (St Luke ix. 2), and the Breviary reads on it a homily of St Bonaventure, a Franciscan like him.

Collect, 28 March

Deus, qui per beátum Joánnem fidéles tuos in virtúte sanctíssimi nóminis Jesu de Crucis inimícis triumpháre fecísti: præsta, quǽsumus; ut, spirituálium hóstium, ejus intercessióne, superátis insídiis, corónam justítiæ a te accípere mereámur. Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

O God, who through blessed John didst make Thy faithful triumph over the enemies of the Cross by the power of the most holy Name of Jesus: grant, we beseech Thee, that, the snares of our spiritual enemies being overcome through his intercession, we may be worthy to receive from Thee the crown of justice. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

Secret

Sacrifícium, Dómine, quod immolámus, placátus inténde: ut, intercedénte beáto Joánne Confessóre tuo, ad conteréndas inimicórum insídias nos in tuæ protectiónis securitáte constítuat. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

Look graciously, O Lord, upon the sacrifice we offer, that, through the intercession of blessed John Thy Confessor, it may establish us in the safety of Thy protection, to crush the snares of our enemies. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

The Collect is the prayer to St John of Capistrano that the Church herself gives: the victory he won over visible enemies by the Name of Jesus, asked now against the invisible ones. It can be prayed on any day, and those who wish to make a novena may pray it on the nine days before his feast. The devotion he preached is unfolded in our pages on the Holy Name of Jesus and the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.

When is the feast day of St John of Capistrano?

In the calendar of 1962 the feast of St John of Capistrano falls on 28 March, as a feast of the third class, in white vestments.

Because 28 March falls in Lent or Passiontide, and under the rubrics of 1960 a Lenten weekday outranks a feast of the third class, he is kept by a commemoration: the Mass and Office are of the day, and his Collect is added to the prayer of the day. When 28 March falls on a Sunday, in Holy Week or in Easter week, which are days of the first class, he is not commemorated at all that year. The dates for the current year are in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962, and his place among the saints in our guide to the Catholic saints.

The calendar of 1969 moved his feast to 23 October, the day of his death.

What is St John of Capistrano the patron saint of?

We have found no patronage given to him by an act of the Holy See before 1958. Modern devotion calls him a patron of jurists and judges, because of his first career; this title is recent and we cannot date it with certainty. The Church's own prayer points to what he obtains: victory over the enemies of the soul through the Name of Jesus. The Franciscan mission of San Juan Capistrano, in California, bears his name.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St John of Capistrano?

An Italian lawyer and governor of Perugia who became a Franciscan friar in 1416, a disciple of St Bernardine of Siena, a preacher of the Holy Name throughout Italy and Central Europe, and the soul of the defence of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456.

How did St John of Capistrano die?

Of the pestilence that broke out after the siege of Belgrade, worn out by labour and penance, on 23 October 1456, most probably at Ilok on the Danube.

What miracles did St John of Capistrano perform?

The Breviary speaks of many cures and conversions during his missions, which he attributed to the relics of St Bernardine of Siena, and of many miracles after his death, approved for his canonization.

When is the feast of St John of Capistrano?

On 28 March in the calendar of 1962, where it falls in Lent and is kept as a commemoration; on 23 October in the calendar of 1969.

What happened to the relics of St John of Capistrano?

The fate of his body after his death is uncertain, and the accounts disagree.

Why is St John of Capistrano linked to the feast of the Transfiguration?

Because the news of the victory of Belgrade reached Rome on 6 August, and Pope Callistus III consecrated the solemnity of the Transfiguration, kept on that day, to its perpetual memory, as the Breviary records in his lessons.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal of 1962, the Breviary and the traditional calendar with every feast and commemoration, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 28 March (St John of Capistrano). Roman Breviary, 28 March, historical lessons and homily of St Bonaventure. Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 28 March. Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, Habacuc iii. 18-19; St Luke ix. 2.