John of Kęty
Professor of theology at Kraków who gave his meals to the poor and walked to Rome four times.
- Middle Ages
- Poland
- Feast day December 23
- 1390 – 1473
- Priest
- Theologian
- Pilgrim
Listen to the life 0:40
John Cantius taught for nearly forty years at the university of Kraków, where he copied out by hand the manuscripts he could not afford to buy — several volumes in his hand survive. His charity was proverbial: he gave away his meals and his clothes, and the university had to pay his stipend in kind so that he might keep any of it. He went four times to Rome on foot, carrying his baggage on his back, and once to Jerusalem. Canonised in 1767, he is one of the patrons of Poland and Lithuania.
