Capistrano is the town where he was born (in the province of Aquila in the Abruzzi) in 1386, the son of a family from the north—perhaps German—that had settled there. He studied civil and canon law in Perugia, where he also served as a judge, until he was imprisoned by Malatesta.
While in prison, he experienced visions that changed his life of faith. He dissolved his unconsummated marriage and entered the Order of the Friars Minor Observants, beginning a life of preaching that would last forty years. Among his contemporaries, only his friend Bernardine of Siena could compare with him in this mission—and John himself would later work for Bernardine’s canonization.
John’s apostolic activity was wide-ranging. Besides preaching almost daily, he dedicated himself to hearing confessions, reconciling communities, organizing works of charity (especially hospitals), and advising the popes. The popes sent him as a legate to Naples, Milan, and Sicily; his religious superiors sent him as a visitor to the Holy Land and to the Low Countries. King Frederick III called him to Austria. In Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony, Silesia, and Poland, he preached missions with success among the Hussites and other sects. Later, he dedicated himself to calling for a crusade against the Turks, a mission that led him to Hungary. It can rightly be said that it was through his efforts that Belgrade was saved in July 1456.
As an organizer of the Observant Franciscans, he worked to preserve unity within the whole Order while promoting reform. However, this proved impossible because of resistance from the Conventuals, and John eventually separated the branch of the Observants from the rest of the Franciscans. He fought successfully against the sect of the Fraticelli, but his harsh measures against the Jews did not achieve what he had hoped.
Though not yet fully appreciated historically, John of Capistrano was without doubt one of the greatest reformers of the Church in the fifteenth century. He is rightly called the “Apostle of Europe,” and in this sense his presence in the universal Roman calendar is well justified. He died in Ilok (Austria), on the banks of the Danube, on October 23, 1456. He was canonized in 1690. Pope Leo XIII extended his feast to the whole Church, setting it first on March 28. The present calendar places it again on the anniversary of his death.
