James of the Marches

Saint James of the Marches was born in the early 1390s in Monteprandone on Italy’s Adriatic coast, to a poor family, and was baptized Domenico Gangala. Gifted in study, he earned a doctorate in canon and civil law at Perugia and briefly worked as a tutor and judge before hearing a deeper call. On July 26, 1416, at the Portiuncula in Assisi, he entered the Friars Minor and took the name James, embracing a life of prayer, poverty, and rigorous penance under the guidance of Saint Bernardine of Siena and alongside Saint John of Capistrano. Ordained a priest in 1420, James spent nearly fifty years preaching throughout Italy and across Europe as a papal legate and inquisitor, laboring for conversions, defending the faith against heresy, and spreading devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. He also founded charitable lending institutions, the montes pietatis, to protect the poor from exploitation. He died in Naples on November 28, 1476, and is venerated as patron of Monteprandone. His feast day is November 28.