Saints

St. James of the Marches

November 28

1394-1476

 Born at Montebrandone, Ancona of a poor family named Gangala, in March of  1391; he died at Naples,  Nov. 28, 1476. He is generally represented holding in his right hand a chalice,-----an allusion to some endeavors of heretics to poison him. He studied law and then joined the Franciscans at Assisi in 1416. He studied under St. Bernardino of Siena at Fiesole, was ordained when he was twenty-nine, and became an effective and forceful preacher. He worked as a missionary with St. John Capistrano in Italy and in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary, and in 1426, with John, was named inquisitor against the Fraticelli by Pope St. Martin V. They destroyed some thirty-six Fraticelli houses. James attended the Council of Basle-Florence, helped recon cile the Hussites, but was unsuccessful in attempts to reconcile the Observant and Conventual Franciscans. In 1456, he was sent to Austria and Hungary to combat the Hussites. He refused an offer of the see of Milan, and in 1462 became involved with the Inquisition because of a sermon he preached at Brescia. The case caused a sensation and was referred to Rome; silence was imposed on all parties, and no decision was ever rendered. He was canonized in 1726 as St. James of the Marches. Naples venerates him as one of its patron Saints






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