The Miracles of St. John of Capistran
Religious history and, in particular, the history of the cult of saints and their miracles has recently become one of the most popular fields of historical investigation. Together with continuing interest in the related ecclesiastic motivations and the well organized craft of hagiography, this new interest might be explained by the marvellously rich details of thousands of witness accounts testifying to the miraculous help they received from the saint in times of desparate need. These accounts provide an unparalleled insight into the history of everyday life and into the various hardships, illnesses, hopes dreams and anxieties during the late medieval and early modern period.
Only two records exist on the history of the medieval Hungarian kingdom- the thirteenth century canonization trial of St. Margaret of Hungary and the miracle collections promoting the canonization of St. John of Capistran, the victorious Crusader at Belgrade in 1456, who died thereafter in Ilok (a city located on the periphery of western Christianity in Croatia). Based on a careful study of the widely scattered manuscripts on Capistranean miracles and with the help of a microscopic philological analysis, the author has managed to reconstruct, for the first time, one of the most complex miracle collections in the history of medieval hagiography.
Covering the recording of the first miracle series by the urban notaries of Ilok, the local hagiographer of Ilok Franciscans (John Geszti), the vicar general of the Hungarian province (Stephen Varsányi), and a number of subsequent editions and amplifications of this material recycling into the canonization campaign of St. John of Capistran and the miracles he himself recorded, The Miracles of St. John of Capistran, is an outstanding debut by a representative of a new generation of Central European medievalists.
Introduction
Remark on quoting from the miracle collections
Chapter 1. The road to Ilok
The origins of the Franciscan Observance
Some elements of the Observant spirituality
The Observants in Bosnia and Hungary
John Capistran in Hungary.
The victory of Belgrade and its hagiography
Chapter 2. A portrait of the town
Economy, lordship, and privilege
Convents and churches.
Linguistic differences
Religious differences
Chapter 3. The death and the corpse
After the battle
From Belgrade to Ilok
Last weeks
Handling the saint's body
Hagiographic topoi and typical situations
Chapter 4. The beginnings of the canonization campaign, 1456-63
James of the Marches visits Ilok
Piccolomini elected pope: his views on Capistran
John of Tagliacozzo again in Hungary
The miracles recorded by the committee of Ilok: N
Ia: a collection parallel to N
The Franciscan John Geszti, a miracle diarist: Ib
The contribution of Peter Soproni: Na and M
Epistles and vitae
Chapter 5. The canonization campaign from the early 1460's to 1526
The obstacles and opponents
A few scattered petitions
The last notable attempt
The end of the medieval canonization campaign
The later miracle collections
The collection Id† (1520-21)
The collection Ic (end of the 15th century?)
Ic and Id† compared
The "Annexe" of Id†
Chapter 6. Capistran as a living miracle-worker
Capistran and Bernardine of Siena
Capistran and the value of miracles
The miraculous punishments
Human law and divine law
Prophecies and visions
The preaching and the miracles
Helping miracles
Saints vs. demons and saints vs. saints
Chapter 7. A morphology of Capistranean posthumous miracles
Miracle story as a narrative structure
(1) The misfortune and its circumstances
(2) Ineffective attempts
(3) Discovering the saint
(4) The forms of imploration
(5) The role of intercessors and assistants
(6) The dynamic of the miraculous event
(7) The practices of gratitude
(8) Neglect and punishment
(9) Testification to the miracle
Chapter 8: Some historical aspects of the miracles post mortem
A typology of the miracles: between diversity and uniformity
The geographical extension of the cult
Social and gender distribution of miracles
Conclusion (Towards a unified theory of miracles)
Appendix 1: Sources for the history of Capistran's canonization campaign.
Appendix 2: Selected collations of miracle accounts
Appendix 3: Liberations from captivity
Appendix 4: Domiciles of the beneficiaries of Capistran's posthumous miracles
Selected Bibliography
Index of proper names