Giovanni da Capistrano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Categories: Franciscans | Italian saints | Diplomats of the Holy See | 1386 births | 1456 deaths | History of Belgrade
Saint Giovanni da Capestrano (in English, John Capistrano, June 24, 1386 – October 23,1456), Italian friar, theologian and inquisitor, was born in the village of Capestrano, in the diocese of Sulmona in the Abruzzi. His father had come to Italy with the Angevin court of Louis I of Anjou, King of Naples. He lived at first a wholly secular life, studied law at the University of Perugia under the legal scholar Pietro de Ubaldis, married, and became a successful magistrate. In 1412 Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia, a tumultuous and resentful papal fief held by Ladislas as the pope's champion, in order to effectively establish public order. When war broke out between Perugia and Sigismondo Malatesta in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but Malatesta threw him in prison. During the captivity, in despair he put aside his new young wife, never having consummated the marriage, and, studying with St Bernardino of Siena, together with St Giacomo della Marca, he entered the Franciscan order at Perugia on October 4, 1416. At once he gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and orthodoxy, following Bernardino as he preached, and from 1420 onwards, preaching himself with great effect in many cities. Unlike most Italian preachers of repentance in the 15th century, Giovanni da Capestrano was effective in the north, in Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the piazzas: at Brescia he preached to a crowd of 126,000. When he was not preaching, he was writing tracts against heresy of every kind. This facet of Giovanni's life is covered in great detail by his early biographers, Nicholas of Fara, Christopher of Varese and Girolamo of Udine. While he was thus evangelizing, he was actively engaged in assisting Bernardino in the reforms of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interests of more rigorous hierarchic discipline. Like St Bernardino of Siena, he greatly proselytized devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with that saint, was accused of heresy on this account. In 1429, John, together with other Observant friars, was called to Rome on the charge of heresy, and he was chosen by his companions to defend them; the friars were acquitted by the Commission of Cardinals. He was frequently deployed to embassies by Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V. In 1439 he was sent as legate to Milan and Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the Antipope Felix V; in 1446 he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic nuncio to Austria. During the period of his nunciature, John visited all parts of the Empire, preaching and combatting the heresy of the Hussites; he also visited Poland at the request of Casimir IV. As legate, or inquisitor, he prosecuted the last Fraticelli of Ferrara, the Jesuati of Venice, the Jews of Sicily, Moldavia and Poland, and, above all, the Hussites of Germany, Hungary and Bohemia; his aim in the last case was to make conferences impossible between the representatives of Rome and the Bohemians, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy. After the Fall of Constantinople, when Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, Pope Calixtus III sent him at the age of seventy, to preach and lead a Crusade against the invading Turks at the Diet of Frankfurt in 1454, and he succeeded in gathering troops together, which in the summer of 1456, with Capistrano leading a contingent, helped John Hunyadi to raise the siege of Belgrade, which was being blockaded by Mahommed II. He died of bubonic plague shortly afterwards at Ilok, Hungary (now border town between Croatia and Serbia across the Danube from Backa Palanka). Capistrano, in spite of this restless life, found time to work, both in the lifetime of his master Bernardino and after, at the reform of the order of the minor Franciscans, and to uphold both in his writings and his speeches the most advanced theories upon the papal supremacy as opposed to that of the councils (see Conciliar Movement). The year of his canonization is variously given as 1690 or 1724. His feast day was originally the day of his death, 23 October; it was moved to 28 March in 1890, when his feast was made general for the entire Roman Catholic Church.[3]Since the calendar reform following the Second Vatican Council his feast day has been returned to October 23. References
See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
External links
cs:Jan Kapistránský de:Johannes Capistranus es:Juan Capistrano fr:Jean de Capistran hr:Sveti Ivan Kapistran it:San Giovanni da Capestrano la:Ioannes Capistranus hu:Kapisztrán Szent János pl:Jan Kapistran ro:Ioan de Capistrano ru:Иоанн Капистран sr:Јован Капистран | |||||||||||||||||||
