### St John of Capistrano, Peter Soproni
St John (János) of Capistrano He was born on 24 June, 1386, in Capedtrano, in the Kingdom of Naples, as a German mercenary captain's son. He studied law at the university of Perugia, then he held several high judicial offices. He became the governor and judge of Perugia, in 1415, however, he was caught and imprisoned during a revolt. In captivity he had a revelation, St Francis of Assisi appeared and encouraged him to change his life. In 1416 he joined the Observant branch of the Franciscan order. He was consecrated as a priest in 1420, from that time on together with Bernardino of Siena and Jacob of Marchia he became the organiser of reforms in the order. He was considered one of the best preachers of his age. As a papal legate he visited a lot of courts in different countries, including the Holy Land. From 1451 as a papal representative he spread Christianity against the Turks in Austria, the Czech state and Poland. In some regions he persecuted heretics as a papal inquisitor. He wrote a lot of sermons, theological works and letters. A lot of his letters were addressed to Hungarian people. From 1455 he was a cardinal, and as a member of the papal legate he also taught Christianity in Hungary. Next to John Hunyadi he was co-organiser of the army defending Nándorfehérvár, then he became a leader of the defence. After the siege, on 23 October, 1456 he died of plague. He was buried in the market town of Újlak (Ilok, Yugoslavia), in county Szerém, so a lot of pilgrims went there in the hope of recovery. His canonisation was urged right after his death, but it was held only in 1724. SzKTI Peter (Péter) Soproni He was an Observant Franciscan monk. In 1450 he travelled to Rome to gain the jubilee pilgrimage. During his journey he joined the Franciscan order in Padua under the influence of John Capistrano. Until 1456 he was the escort and eye-witness of the deeds of his saint colleague. In 1457 he started to record the miracles in connection with John Capistrano to the encouragement of Jacob Machia, papal legate, and Stephen Varsányi, vicar of the order. His work was finally printed in 1523 under the title of 'Preconizatio beati patris Johannis de Capistrano' (The Praise of Saint John of Capistrano) as an appendix to a great collection of works about the life of St John Capistrano. KSZ