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John of Capistrano (1386-1456) was born in Capistrano in the Abruzzo region of central/southern Italy, now a small town of under 900 residents. A 1776 mission in Orange County, CA is named after the Italian saint, a city known for the return of migrating Cliff Swallows around 19 March, four days prior to his memorial. Capistrano studied law at Perugia, married, and became governor of Perugia in 1412. He later separated from his wife and became a Franciscan at age 30. John humiliated himself by riding a donkey backwards through the town with a list of sins identified on his hat prior to admission as a Franciscan. He adopted an austere lifestyle, walking barefoot, sleeping only a few hours daily, also wearing a hair-shirt. He became a priest in 1420. His preaching attracted large crowds and he promoted a return to the ideals and Rule of St. Francis by Observant Franciscan monks and nuns. During the Hussite rebellion in Bohemia, John was sent as an inquisitor to Vienna where he worked with great zeal against the Hussites, the severity of which he was later criticized. Pope Pius II (1458-1464) encouraged John to preach a crusade against the Turks after the Fall of Constantinople (1453). When the Turks attacked Belgrade, the preaching of Capistrano and the leadership of Hungarian general Janos Hunyady led to a victory. However, the unburied corpses following the battle led to the spread of disease claiming both Hunyady and Capistrano in 1456. References: • David Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints, (Oxford: 2004) • Dawn Marie Beutner, Saints Article Link: • Anonymous, “St John of Capistrano” Vatican Notes, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 1-2 (1956) | |||||
