John of Capistrano - Friar and Preacher

Friar and Preacher

Together with James of the Marches, John entered the Order of Friars Minor 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 the example set by Bernardine. From 1420 onwards, he preached with great effect in numerous cities and eventually became well known.

Unlike most Italian preachers of repentance in the 15th century, John was effective in northern and central Europe, in Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the public squares--at Brescia in Italy, he preached to a crowd of 126,000.

John was known as the "Scourge of the Jews" for his fanatical anti-semitism. In 1447 he offered the Pope a small fleet on which to load all the Jews of the papal states in order to ship them to some faraway land. Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel their entire Jewish population, and at Breslau some were burned at the stake.