GIOVANNI of Ragusa. – Dominican, one of the principal figures of the Council of Basel (1431-48), b. at Ragusa from the noble Stojković family ca. 1390-95, d. in Oct.-Nov. 1443. In his youth he became a Dominican in the convent of Ragusa. On 8 Nov. 1420 he obtained the doctorate in Sacred Scripture at Paris and shortly after (1423) was sent as ambassador of the University of Paris to Martin V at the Council of Pavia-Siena. Returning to his chair at Paris, he remained there until 1429, when he was elected procurator of his Order at the Papal Court.
He accompanied Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini in Germany against the Hussites and, while the latter was detained by the Bohemian legation, was delegated by Cesarini himself to open the Council of Basel (23 July) and to preside over it until his arrival (9 Sept. 1431). From Jan. to Apr. 1433 he fought for Communion under one kind against John Rokycana of the Bohemian party. Together with Henry of Mügeln and Simon Fréron, he was sent to Constantinople, where he remained from 1435 to 1437 as legate of the Council to negotiate union with the Greeks. On his return to Basel, when the minds of the Fathers were divided, he initially sided with Cesarini for Eugenius IV, but later joined the dissidents, representing the majority opposed to the Pope and to the continuation of the Council at Bologna. On 10 Oct. 1438, by the antipope Felix V, he was created bishop of Ardijsch in Wallachia and on 12 Oct. 1440 cardinal with the title of S. Sisto.
He wrote a short work on the beginnings of the Council of Basel, a treatise on union with the Church of the Bohemians and various discourses.