Saint John of Kanty

Saint John of Kanty, also called John of Kęty after his native town, was a priest and a professor at the University of Krakow. He was remembered as a man of prayer and persevering work, generous to the poor. The General Roman Calendar commemorates him on December 23, the eve of the anniversary of his death; in Poland his memorial is kept on October 20.

He was born in June 1390 in Kęty near Oświęcim. Little is known about his family and childhood. Old lives gave various years for his birth; the year 1390 follows from notes he himself left in the books he copied. In 1413 he enrolled at the University of Krakow, and in 1418 he became a master of arts. It is not known exactly when he was ordained a priest.

In the 1420s he directed the school at the monastery of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre in Miechów. In 1429 he returned to Krakow and began lecturing in the faculty of arts, of which he was also dean. At the same time he studied theology. In 1439 he became a canon and cantor at the collegiate church of Saint Florian in Krakow and parish priest of Olkusz. He soon gave up the parish, because he could not combine pastoral care with his duties at the university, and he did not want to draw income from an office he did not carry out.

In 1443 he obtained the degree of master of theology, and from then until the end of his life he taught that subject. For about forty years he copied the books he needed for teaching. More than twenty codices in his hand survive to this day; they are kept in the Jagiellonian Library and the Vatican Library.

He lived modestly and shared what he had with the poor. Tradition relates that he gave them his own meal, clothing, and shoes. The oldest testimonies mention his pilgrimages to Rome and to the Holy Land, and later lives speak of four journeys to Rome on foot. The Roman Martyrology calls him an example of piety and of charity toward his neighbor for his co-workers and students.

He died in Krakow on December 24, 1473, at the age of 83. He was buried in the Church of Saint Anne, and only two years later people began to write down the favors received at his tomb. His relics rest there to this day, in the university collegiate church of Saint Anne.

The process in his cause was opened in 1628 by the bishop of Krakow, Marcin Szyszkowski. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints states that Clement X beatified him in 1676; in Poland the date usually given is September 27, 1680, during the pontificate of Innocent XI. Clement XIII canonized him on July 16, 1767. John of Kanty is the patron of the Jagiellonian University, of professors, and of young people who study. In 1997 John Paul II, once a student of this university, met at his tomb with scholars from all over Poland.