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- parish history 		      "fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love. Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause." SJK

THE LIFE OF SAINT JOHN KANTY

St. John Kanty receives his name from his birthplace, Kant, near Oswiecim in Poland. His parents were country folk of respectable position and, seeing that their son was as quick and intelligent as he was good, they sent him in due course to the University of Cracow.

After his ordination, John was appointed to a Iectureship or chair at the University. He was known to lead a very strict life, and when he was warned to look after his health he replied by pointing out that the fathers of the desert were notably long-lived.

      There is a story told that once when he was dining, a famished looking beggar passed the door. John jumped up and carried out all his food to the man; when be returned to his seat he found his plate again full – miraculously. This, it is said, was long commemorated in the university by setting aside a special meal for a poor man every day; when dinner was ready the vice-president would cry out in Latin, "A poor man is coming, to which the president replied "Jesus Christ is corning," and the man was then served. But while be was yet alive John's success as a preacher and teacher raised up envy against him, and his rivals managed to get him removed and sent as a parish priest to Olkusz. John turned to his new work with single hearted energy, but his parishioners did not like him and he himself was afraid of the responsibilities of the position. Nevertheless be persevered for some years, and by the time be was recalled to Cracow had so far won his people's hearts that they accompanied him on part of the road with such grief that he said to them: "This sadness does not please God. If I have done any good for you in all these years, sing a song of joy."  
       
St. John’s second appointment at the University was as professor of Sacred Scripture, and he held it to the end of his life. He left such a reputation that his doctoral gown was for long used to invest each candidate at the conferring of degrees, but his fame was not all confined to academic circles. He was a welcome guest at the table of the nobility (once his shabby cassock caused the servants to refuse him admission, so be went away and changed it. During the meal a dish was upset over the new one. "No matter," be said, "my clothes deserve some dinner because to them I owe the pleasure of being here at all."), and he was known to all the poor in Cracow. His goods and money were always at their disposal, and time and again they literally "cleared him out." But his own needs were few; be slept on the floor, never ate meat, and when be went to Rome be walked all the way and carried his luggage on his back. He was never weary of telling his pupils to "fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love. Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause." Several miracles were reported of St. John, and when news got round the city that be was dying there was an outburst of sorrow. "Never mind about this prison which is decaying” be said to those who were looking after him, "but think of the soul that is going to leave it." He died on Christmas Eve 1473, at the age of eighty three. St. John Kanty was canonized in 1767.