St. John of Kanty

A Polish priest and professor of Scripture at the University of Krakow for forty years. He gave away his cloak to a beggar so often that the spare became standard equipment, and his hospitality to the poor was legendary. Famously gentle, he counseled his students: "Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love."

Born around 1390 in the town of Kanty near Oświęcim, he was ordained after brilliant studies at Krakow and spent a brief, unhappy stint as a parish priest before returning to academic life, where his gifts truly lay. He made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome on foot, carrying his belongings on his back, and was known to give his dinner to the hungry on the way home from lectures.

He died on Christmas Eve, 1473, and was buried in the Collegiate Church of St. Anne in Krakow, where his tomb became a place of pilgrimage. Canonized in 1767, he is a patron of Poland and of the Archdiocese of Krakow — a scholar who proved that the deepest learning and the simplest charity are not two things but one.