JOHN OF EPHESUS. - So called because he worked mostly in Ephesus, but he was born in Amida (Syria) at the beginning of the 6th century and died ca. 586. This Monophysite monk, who appeared in Constantinople in 535, enjoyed the favor of Justinian for 30 years, managing to install himself as Monophysite bishop in the Byzantine patriarchal see. But from 572, after the accession of the anti-Monophysite Justin II, he had to suffer every kind of persecution, which almost always forced him into a wandering life.

G. is the author of two valuable works written in Syriac: the History of the Eastern Saints, interesting for the vicissitudes of monasticism in Mesopotamia (ed. E. W. Brooks: PO 17, 1; 19, 2), and an Ecclesiastical History, which covers the time from Julius Caesar up to 585, divided into 3 parts of 6 books each. Only the 3rd part (575-85) has come down to us substantially complete and directly transmitted (ed. E. W. Brooks, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orient., Script. Syri, III, III, Paris 1935; with Latin version, Louvain 1936).

Bibliography

BIBL.: A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, pp. 181-82 (with bibl.).

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina

@incollection{ec6_giovanni_di_efeso, author = {Ortiz, de Urbina Ignazio}, title = {Giovanni di Efeso}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {556}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giovanni-di-efeso} }

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John of Ephesus

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