GIOVANNI di EFESO. - So called because he worked chiefly in Efeso, but born at Amida (Siria) at the beginning of the 6th century and died about 586. This Monophysite monk, who appeared in Costantinopoli in 535, enjoyed the favour of Giustiniano for thirty years, succeeding in establishing himself as a Monophysite bishop in the Byzantine patriarchal see. But from 572, after the accession of the anti-Monophysite Giustino II, he had to suffer every kind of persecution, which almost always compelled him to lead a wandering life.
G. is the author of two noteworthy works written in Syriac: the History of the Eastern Saints, of interest for the history of monasticism in Mesopotamia (ed. E. W. Brooks: PO 17, 1; 19, 2), and an Ecclesiastical History, covering the period from Giulio Cesare 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, Parigi 1935; with Latin translation, Lovanio 1936).