Pope Saint John I

Pope Saint John I

Little is known of Pope Saint John I’s life before he took office, except that he was born in Tuscany and that his father was Constantius. He was elected a week after the death of his predecessor Hormisdas. Thanks to the recent reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches under Hormisdas, relations were very good with the Byzantine empire, but for the same reason they were strained with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. The Byzantine emper…

St. John I: Pope Martyr Celebrated on 18 May St. John I is an important figure in the history of the Catholic Church, celebrated on 18 May. Born in Tuscany, John became pope in 523 A.D. during a period of political and religious tensions. He was a pontiff who tried to maintain the balance between the Roman Empire of the East and the Ostrogoth king Theodoric, a task that proved extremely difficult and which eventually led to his death. John I was…