Sighs and Tears

​‘To whatever city he came, he was always solemnly received by a procession of people and clergy. The largest churches were not able to hold the audiences. Therefore he was obliged to preach out in the open from a scaffold or, as usually was the case, from the roof of the house. Great throngs streamed out to hear him, frequently twenty to thirty thousand at a time. On one occasion sixty thousand had assembled at Erfurt, and in Vienna a hundred thousand were present for the opening address.
 
The people listened with sighs and tears though they did not understand his language. He preached in Latin; one of his companions then translated it into the vernacular. Although the Latin sermon might last two or three hours, the audience quietly remained two more hours in the open streets, disregarding cold and snow, to hear the translation. Just to have seen the “holy man” was a consolation for the simple, pious folk. Often so many eager listeners climbed the trees in the neighbouring gardens that limbs would snap under the weight’.

from The Church’s Year of Grace, 1953, by Pius Parsch, 1884-1954 

O God, who didst raise up Saint John of Capistrano to comfort thy faithful people in tribulation: place us, we pray, under thy safe protection, and keep thy Church in everlasting peace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. - Divine Worship: The Missal.