John of Dukla (also called "Jan of Dukla") is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. He is one of the patron saints of Poland and Lithuania.

Biography

John was born in Dukla, Poland, in 1414. He joined the Friars Minor Conventual, and studied at Krakow. After being ordained, he preached in Lwów (then part of Poland), Moldavia, and Belarus; and was superior of Lwów. He may have joined the Observants at a time when efforts were being made to unite the two branches of the Franciscans. Though he went blind at age seventy, he was able to prepare sermons with the help of an aide. His preaching was credited with bringing people back to the church in his province. Soon after his death, there was an immediate veneration at his tomb and several miracles were attributed to him. He died in 1484 in Lwów, Poland. John was declared Venerable by Pope Clement XII on 21 January 1733. The cause for his beatification was opened on 22 June 1948, and the process of evaluating a miracle attributed to him began on 18 January 1951. On June 10, 1997, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II in a mass at Krosno, Poland, before approximately one million people.