October 23
The saints and feasts remembered on October 23, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint John of Capistrano
Franciscan preacher who rallied volunteers to defend Belgrade in 1456
John was born in 1386 in Capestrano, a small town in the Abruzzo region of Italy. He studied law at Perugia and rose fast, becoming a judge and governor there. In 1416, during a war with a neighbouring lord, he was captured and imprisoned. In his cell he rethought his life, and after his release he joined the Franciscans, becoming a disciple of Bernardine of Siena.
For about forty years John preached across Italy and Central Europe to huge crowds, and popes sent him to reform friaries and settle disputes. His zeal had a hard side: he pressed for harsh measures against Jews and Hussites, which historians judge severely.
In 1456, aged seventy, he gathered volunteers and joined the Hungarian commander John Hunyadi to relieve Belgrade, besieged by the Ottomans. The city held. Soon after, John fell ill and died at Ilok on 23 October. He is remembered as a gifted lawyer who spent his talents on the Gospel.
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2 · BSB
A prayer
Faithful God, you turned John of Capistrano from a career of power to the work of preaching your Gospel, and gave him courage to the end of his life. Free us from ambition that serves only ourselves, keep our zeal humble and merciful, and make us ready to speak your word with love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
James of Jerusalem, Brother of the Lord
Brother of Jesus who became a leader of the first church in Jerusalem
James is named in the Gospels among the brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3). Christians understand “brother” in different ways: a son of Mary and Joseph, a son of Joseph from an earlier marriage, or a close relative. John’s Gospel says Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him at first, yet Paul writes that the risen Christ appeared to James.
James went on to lead the church in Jerusalem. Paul called him one of its “pillars,” and at the meeting described in Acts 15 he helped decide that non-Jewish believers need not keep the whole Jewish law. The historian Josephus records that in about 62 the high priest Ananus had him stoned. A later writer, Hegesippus, says people called him “the Just” and that his knees grew hard from praying.
The Letter of James, with its blunt call to put faith into action, has traditionally been linked to him. He is remembered as a bridge between Jesus’ family, the first Jewish believers and the wider Church.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22–25 · BSB
A prayer
Faithful God, you showed the risen Christ to James, the brother of Jesus, and made him a servant of your people in Jerusalem. Give us a faith that shows itself in deeds, patience in trials and courage to speak the truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.