St. John of Capistrano and the Siege of Belgrade

St. John of Capistrano

How a saintly friar, a soldier, and the prototype of Dracula saved Western Civilization. From Catholic Answers:

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Pope Callixtus III charged [Father John Capistrano]—due to his potent personality, no doubt—to muster a force to arrest the Turkish invasion of Eastern Europe. So, after years of preaching and laboring for the faithful and the Franciscans with Bernardine of Siena, John of Capistrano then turned soldier-priest and amassed what troops he could from the streets and villages of Hungary, determined to gain more official assistance in breaking the sultan’s siege of Belgrade.

John’s meeting with the Hungarian military heads in Györ seemed to fall on deaf ears, so he marched with his motley crew of crusaders toward the besieged fortress of Belgrade. But his exhortation had not been futile. Not only did he win the admiration of the savage Wallachian prince, Vlad Dracul, but he also stirred the martial politician John Hunyadi.

John Hunyadi formed a relief force for the determined John Capistrano and mounted a fleet of 200 ships on the Danube. Throwing his gauntlet into the impending campaign, Vlad Dracul agreed to hold the Transylvanian passes against Turkish reinforcements with his mercenaries and protect the eastern defenses of Belgrade.

In the summer of 1456, John Capistrano met John Hunyadi and Vlad Dracul on the groaning walls of Belgrade. There they sealed their alliance for the cause of Christ. They had mustered a significant militia, including war vessels, siege guns, and cannons. And when battle broke, so did the siege of Belgrade. The blusterous old priest, frail as he was, charged into the thick of the fighting with his men, bearing nothing but a crucifix to protect him.

With the valiant aid of Hunyadi and the strategic support of Dracul, John Capistrano emerged as a central figure in repelling the Ottoman stranglehold around Belgrade, which threatened not only Hungary, but also the Christian West. Together, they burst through the ring of Turkish land forces while the fleet on the Danube cleaved the seemingly unbreakable Turkish armada that had blocked passage to the city.

In desperation, Mehmed II joined the combat and was wounded in the thigh. As he was borne away, the Turkish army succeeded in penetrating the city—but, with the protruding bastions around the rampart turrets allowing for a deadly crossfire from above on those battering the walls below, the janissaries were finally routed at the fortress by the combined forces of John Capistrano, John Hunyadi, and Vlad Dracul.

Over 24,000 Turks fell in the fighting. The beautiful blue Danube ran red with blood as the bells pealed over Belgrade. Te Deum rang out, and when the news reached Rome, Pope Callixtus named the great day of victory as the feast of the Transfiguration.

Though John Capistrano survived the Siege of Belgrade, he did not survive the Bubonic Plague, which took his life only weeks afterward. He died on October 23, 1456 and would be canonized as the patron saint of Hungary.

St. John Capistrano has remained on the offensive for Hungary even from heaven. In fact, exactly 500 years later to the day, in 1956, Hungary chose John’s feast day to rebel against the Hungarian People’s Republic, imposed by the Soviet Union, and were victorious.

The story of John Capistrano’s league with the noble General Hunyadi and the savage Count Dracul of vampiric legend is one of those moments in history that are almost too fantastic for most fairy tales. What happened at Belgrade was a miracle—more of a miracle of concord than combat—and it is such miracles that will save Christian culture. (Read more.)

 

An account in honor of heroes who must never be forgotten, in a series of battles which kept Europe from being conquered by the Turks. To quote:

At the end of 1455, after a public reconciliation with all his enemies, Hunyadi began preparations. At his own expense he provisioned and armed the fortress, and, leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László, he proceeded to form a relief army and a fleet of two hundred corvettes. As no other baron was willing to help (fearing Hunyadi’s growing power more than the Ottoman threat), he was left entirely to his own resources.

A Franciscan friar allied with Hunyadi, St. John of Capistrano, preached a crusade to attract peasants and yeomanry to Hunyadi’s cause. The recruits were ill-armed (many with only slings and scythes) but full of enthusiasm, and they flocked to the standard of Hunyadi, the core of which consisted of a small band of seasoned mercenaries and a few banderia of noble horsemen. All in all, Hunyadi managed to build a force of 25–30,000 men....

On July 14, 1456 Hunyadi arrived to the completely encircled city with his flotilla on the Danube while the Ottoman navy lay astride the Danube River. He broke the naval blockade on July 14, sinking three large Ottoman galleys and capturing four large vessels and 20 smaller ones. By destroying the Sultan’s fleet, Hunyadi was able to transport his troops and much-needed food into the city. The fort’s defense was also reinforced.

But Mehmed II was not willing to end the siege and after a week of heavy artillery bombardment, the walls of the fortress were breached in several places. On July 21 Mehmed II ordered an all-out assault which began at sundown and continued all night. The besieging army flooded the city, and then started its assault on the fort. As this was the most crucial moment of the siege, Hunyadi ordered the defenders to throw tarred wood, and other flammable material, and then set it afire. Soon a wall of flames separated the Janissaries fighting in the city from their comrades trying to breach through the gaps into the upper town. The fierce battle between the encircled Janissaries and Szilágyi’s soldiers inside the upper town was turning in favour of the Christians and the Hungarians managed to beat off the fierce assault from outside the walls. The Janissaries remaining inside the city were thus massacred while the Ottoman troops trying to breach the upper town suffered heavy losses. When an Ottoman soldier almost managed to plant the Sultan’s flag on top of a bastion, a Hungarian knight grabbed him and together they plunged from the wall. (Read entire post.)