23rd December - John was born in 1397 in Kenty, diocese of Cracow, son of Stanislaus and Anne. From his childhood he showed great qualities of gentleness and piety.
He studied philosophy and theology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. After passing all the academic degrees, he became a doctor and professor there, and for a long time taught theology at the same university in Krakow. He was also parish priest in Ilkusi for several years, where he showed great charity, combining preaching with assiduous personal prayer and mortification. His meagre resources were spent on relieving the poor, even giving them his clothes and shoes.
It is said that one day on his way to church, John met a beggar lying on the snow, shivering with cold. The priest stripped off his coat and took him to the presbytery to treat and comfort him. Shortly after the beggar's departure, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and gave him back his cloak. But, 'considering himself ill-suited to this pastoral charge, he obtained permission from his bishop to return to his teaching duties. He then distinguished himself in his duties by his mortifications and profound piety. For example, he gave up meat altogether. All the time that he did not devote to study and preaching, he devoted to prayer and oraison, during which he was favoured by celestial visions and talks, dominated by the Passion of Christ which he relived entire nights.
He made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he himself preached the Crucified Christ to the Turks, as well as several journeys to Rome on foot to visit the tombs of the Apostles. During a pilgrimage to Rome, he was robbed by brigands. After having stripped him of what was visible, they asked him if he had anything else that they would not have taken. The priest told them no. But after they had left, he remembered that he had some gold coins sewn into his coat. He ran after them to give them to them. The thieves, confused, gave him back everything they had taken from him. He died on Christmas Eve 1473. His body was taken to St. Anne's Church, the church of the university. He was canonised by Pope Clement XIII on 17 August 1767.
