GIOVANNI CALIBITA, saint. — He was born, according to legend, in Constantinople to a noble family at the beginning of the 5th century. As a young man, he fled together with a monk intending to retire to a monastery. After six years of religious life he returned to his parental home, where for three years, unknown to his parents, he lived in a hovel (καλύθης), from which comes his surname.
Shortly before his death he revealed himself to them, and they later transformed the hovel into a church. He is commemorated on 15 January by both the Greeks and the Latins. At Rome a church was built in his honour on the Tiber Island, already mentioned in the 9th century by Anastasius the Librarian, who translated Giovanni’s life into Latin. Subsequently it was believed that the paternal home of Giovanni—thought to be a Roman—was located there. The first authentic papal document concerning the Roman church dates from 1018.