Saint John of Capistrano

John was born on June 24, 1386, in Capestrano, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. He studied law at Perugia, married and became governor of the city. Taken prisoner during a war, he reflected on his life and, after his release, entered the Franciscans in 1416. He became a disciple of Saint Bernardine of Siena and spread devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus.

For forty years he preached across Italy and Central Europe to vast crowds, worked for the reform of the Franciscan Order and was sent by several popes on diplomatic missions. At seventy, he gathered a crusading army and, with the Hungarian commander John Hunyadi, helped lift the Ottoman siege of Belgrade in July 1456. A few months later, weakened by the plague that broke out in the camp, he died at Ilok, in present-day Croatia, on October 23, 1456. He was canonized in 1690.

In California, the Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776, bears his name and is famous for the swallows said to return each year on March 19, the feast of Saint Joseph.

He is invoked as a patron of military chaplains and lawyers, and Franciscans keep his memory with special devotion.