Pope John I

John I
Pope Saint; John I
Papacy began	13 August 523
Papacy ended	18 May 526
Predecessor	Hormisdas
Successor	Felix IV
Personal details
Born	470; Tuscany
Died	18 May 526; Ravenna, Ostrogothic Kingdom
Sainthood
Feast day	18 May
	Other popes named John

Pope John I can also refer to Pope John I of Alexandria.

Pope John I (Latin: Ioannes I; 470 – 18 May 526) was Pope from 13 August 523 to his death in 526.^[1] He was a native of Siena (or the "Castello di Serena"), near Chiusdino, in Italy. He is the first pope known to have visited Constantinople during papacy.^[1]

Biography[edit]

While a deacon in Rome, he is known to have been a partisan of the Antipope Laurentius, for in a libellus written to Pope Symmachus in 506, John confessed his error in opposing him, condemned Peter of Altinum and Laurentius, and begged pardon of Symmachus. He would then be the "Deacon John" who signed the acta (ecclesiastic publication) of the Roman synod of 499 and 502; the fact the Roman church only had seven deacons at the time makes identifying him with this person very likely.^[2] He may also be the "Deacon John" to whom Boethius, the 6th-Century philosopher, dedicated three of his five religious tractates, or treatises, written between 512 and 520.^[3]

John was very frail when he was elected to the papacy as Pope John I. Despite his protests, Pope John was sent by the Arian King Theodoric the Great—ruler of the Ostrogoths, a kingdom in present-day Italy—to Constantinople to secure a moderation of a decree against the Arians, issued in 523, of Emperor Justin, ruler of the Byzantine, or East Roman, Empire. King Theodoric threatened that if John should fail in his mission, there would be reprisals against the orthodox, or non-Arian, Catholics in the West. John proceeded to Constantinople with a considerable entourage: his religious companions included Bishop Ecclesius of Ravenna, Bishop Eusebius of Fanum Fortunae, and Sabinus of Campania.^[4] His secular companions were the senators Flavius Theodorus, Inportunus, Agapitus, and the patrician Agapitus.^[5]

Emperor Justin is recorded as receiving John honorably and promised to do everything the embassy asked of him, with the exception that those converting from Arianism-to-Catholicism would not be "restored" (i.e., allowed to retain their place in the Catholic hierarchy as deacons, priests, or bishops).^[6] Although John was successful in his mission, when he returned to Ravenna, Theodoric's capital in Italy, Theodoric had John arrested on the suspicion of having conspired with Emperor Justin. John was imprisoned at Ravenna, where he died of neglect and ill treatment. His body was transported to Rome and buried in the Basilica of St. Peter.

The Liber Pontificalis credits John with making repairs to the cemetery of the martyrs Nereus and Achilleus on the Via Ardeatina, that of Saints Felix and Adauctus, and the cemetery of Priscilla.^[7]

Pope John I is depicted in art as looking through the bars of a prison or imprisoned with a deacon and a subdeacon. He is venerated at Ravenna and in Tuscany. His feast day is 18 May, the anniversary of the day of his death (whereas it had formerly been 27 May).^[8]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope St. John I". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^ John Moorhead, "The Last Years of Theoderic", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 32 (1983), p. 113
^ This identification was first proposed by E.K. Rand in 1928, and recently defended by Moorhead, "Last years", p. 113
^ Anonymus Valesianus, 15.90; translated by J.C. Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus (Harvard: Loeb Classical Library, 1972), vol. 3 p. 565
^ Raymond Davis (translator), The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis), first edition (Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 1989), p. 49
^ Anonymus Valesianus, 15.91; translated by J.C. Rolfe, vol. 3 p. 565
^ Raymond Davis, The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis), p. 50
^ Patron Saints Index: "Pope Saint John I" (last accessed 23 October 2011)

External links[edit]

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Hormisdas	Pope 523–526	Succeeded by Felix IV

[ce-1] Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope St. John I". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

[2] John Moorhead, "The Last Years of Theoderic", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 32 (1983), p. 113

[3] This identification was first proposed by E.K. Rand in 1928, and recently defended by Moorhead, "Last years", p. 113

[4] Anonymus Valesianus, 15.90; translated by J.C. Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus (Harvard: Loeb Classical Library, 1972), vol. 3 p. 565

[5] Raymond Davis (translator), The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis), first edition (Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 1989), p. 49

[6] Anonymus Valesianus, 15.91; translated by J.C. Rolfe, vol. 3 p. 565

[7] Raymond Davis, The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis), p. 50

[8] Patron Saints Index: "Pope Saint John I" (last accessed 23 October 2011)

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