On 24 june 1386 in Capestrano a baby was born to a German lord who had married a girl of the local D'Amico family, to whom the name of John was given in honour of St John the Baptist, celebrated on that very day. Since early childhood John had a very good education and at 18 went to Perugia to study Law. While he was away in the course of a local feud his brothers were killed and the houses of his father and mother destroyed. When he finished his studies, King Ladislaw appointed him as counsellor to the Royal Court of Justice in Naples. He was sent as an ambassador to the Malatesta, who imprisoned him in the castle of Brufa. He tried to escape, was caught and thrown into a cell, secured by a chain to the wall and with his feet in the water. After three days St Francis appeared to him and arose his religious vocation. After paying a ransom he was set free and went back to Capestrano to dissolve a promise of marriage he had made to a Capestranese girl, renounced all his possessions and in 1415 entered the Monteripido monastery near Perugia to become a Franciscan friar. In Fiesole St. Bernardine of Siena became his spiritual guide. John became a great preacher and travelled widely through Italy and Europe to build monasteries in honor of St. Francis. In L'Aquila he started the construction of a hospital and, after St Bernardine's death, strived to promote the building the Church in honor of his master, and in Capestrano began the construction of the convent in 1447. In 1451 Pope Callisto III entrusted to him the mission to contact all the nations of Europe to raise funds and build an army to stop the Turkish invasion. He was at the head of the Crusaders near Belgrade on 22 July 1456 when the Turkish army was defeated. After the battle a plague broke out, and John caught the disease himself. At the age of 70, on 23 October 1456, he died in the monastery of Ylohk, Hungary, where he was also buried. Before dying he asked that his books and personal possessions should be brought back to Capestrano, where they are still kept in a library that Countess Cabella da Celano built especially for him. On 16 October 1690 he was made a saint and Cosimo III, Grandduke of Tuscany and Prince of Capestrano, donated the Abruzzese town a silver bust of the Saint, presently kept in the Convent. In 1984 St John of Capestrano was made the patron of military chaplains all over the world.
