John of Capistrano was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the Italian town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. He was famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, and earned himself the nickname “the Soldier Saint” when in 1456, at the age of 70, he led a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade, with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.

In 1412, King Ladislaus of Naples appointed him Governor of Perugia 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 study theology. When he was released, John decided to give up the world and become a Franciscan friar, citing a dream where Saint Francis of Assisi ordered him to enter the Order.

Together with James of the Marches, John entered the Order of Friars Minor at Perugia on 4 October 1416. From 1420 onwards, he started preaching with great effect in numerous cities and was eventually ordained in 1425.

John was well known in northern and central Europe - in German states of Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and the Kingdom of Poland. The turnout of the faithful for his preaches was huge that the largest churches could not hold the crowds. Hence, John preached in the public squares. At Brescia in Italy, he preached to a crowd of 126,000.

In 1454, Pope Callixtus III sent John, who was already aged seventy, to preach a Crusade against the invading Turks at the Imperial Diet of Frankfurt. John, along with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi, defeated the invading Ottomans. His involvement in this battle earned him the nickname “the Soldier Saint”.

Following the battle, John fell victim to the bubonic plague and died on 23 October 1456, at the nearby town of Ilok (now a Croatian border town on the Danube).

The year of John of Capistrano's canonization is differently reported as 1690, by Pope Alexander VIII or as 1724, by Pope Benedict XIII.

Saint John Capistrano is venerated as the patron saint of military chaplains and jurists.

Other Saints of the Day

1. Saint Allucio
2. Saint Benedict of Sebaste
3. Saint John of Syracuse
4. Saint Severinus Boethius
5. Saint Theodoret of Antioch